Because Of a Dog
by Withering.Under.Disapproval
Summary: Did the Sleeping Beauty feel this way when she finally awoke? Did she feel sick, and upset, and pulled so taut she was afraid she'd snap? It wasn't because of a dog, anymore. It was because of Sirius Black.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

'Now, back to the latest news- Leah Ebony and the book that has upturned the English politics- _A Person who Kicks Dogs_.'

Leah pressed the power button on the remote. Only three days since _A Person Who Kicks Dogs _had been released, and the media and magazines were alive with joy at this new piece of juicy controversy. She'd also received hate letters from the politicians (serves them right) but she'd just sent all that paper off to be recycled. Though half of it, Kyle used to make paper planes and Zinc had ripped into pieces.

She was feeling scarily moody.

She'd just spent an hour arguing with her dad, because she wanted to take Zinc to Hogwarts. But of course, stupid Hogwarts was far too snooty to accept dogs. Or Alaskan Malamutes, even though they were practically HUMAN. They only accepted toads, cats and owls. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She looked at the big grey wolf-like dog curled up at her feet, on the couch. He was only two years old. Leah groaned and wiped the tears she felt coming to her eyes. Zinc lumbered over her and licked her face, just as Kyle entered the room, eating crisps and string-cheese.

'Something wrong, Leah?' he asked, taking the remote from her.

She hugged Zinc and buried her face in the fur. 'I'm fine. Get out of here.'

Kyle pulled her hair.

'I was _concerned,_ Leah!' he said, 'And _this _is how you repay me?'

'If you're concerned, why don't you do something to help?' she asked, her voice muffled.

She felt Kyle sit down. His cold feet touched hers. 'Help with what?'

'Zinc.' She said, 'Help me get Zinc into Hogwarts.'

She looked at her twin. They were both sixteen, with the same hair and the same colored eyes. Leah was two minutes older than Kyle. She was slim, with dark eyes and dark hair and didn't smile much. Most of the time she day-dreamed or spied, because she was an author. An actual one. And she wrote almost everything in a black leather-bound notebook she carried in her pockets.

Leah was paler than Kyle, because Kyle spent a lot of time outdoors- swimming, playing Quidditch or soccer, or riding one of the many horses they had. The only exercise Leah did was play ball with Zinc, or walk outside on their vast estate with him. Sometimes, Ian would force her to get on a broomstick or get into the pool.

But Ian was firm when it came to getting her into the pool or onto the broom. He didn't let her float around. He made her _fly _and swing batons at the Bludger or go after the snitch. He'd even showed her the Wronski Feint. She could now do it pretty well, though Kyle was amazing at it. He also made her swim properly, and sometimes he'd throw Zinc into the stream so that Zinc swam too.

It was because of Zinc Leah hadn't fallen off the broom and broken her neck. It was because of him she'd got the motivation to write her books (most of which were INTERNATION BESTSELLERS). And therefore, she was NOT leaving Zinc behind. It was like… like betraying Kyle, or Ian, or dad or Nanny… their mom had died seven years back, and Leah barely remembered her anymore.

She vaguely remembered a beautiful dark-haired lady, always dressed sensibly and smartly and modernly, beaming at her and kissing her goodnight and telling Kyle to lay off and stop annoying "poor Leah"… ah, good days… OK, they still were, because Dad beamed and her and kissed her goodnight and told Kyle to lay off and stop annoying her.

Only, now she was going to Hogwarts, where she did NOT want to go… She sucked at making friends… anyway, so Kyle was grinning now.

'I think I've got an idea…'


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Leah followed Kyle through the station stonily and kept a hand on Zinc's back. He was quite tall, so she didn't really need to bend that much… OK, she did look a _bit _weird- dressed in a black coat, fastened at the waist with a black sash. Her jeans could be seen beneath the coat, and she had a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose. And she was stooping slightly, keeping her hand on thin air.

The sunglasses and coat saved her from the paparazzi.

She had put a Selective Invisibility charm on Zinc (only herself and Kyle could see him), and her invisibility cloak was buried in her backpack. Zinc was smart, and he knew he shouldn't bark. But for safety measures, she'd put a silencing charm on him.

The other option had been to transfigure him into a cat, a toad, or an owl, but Leah had refused to do that. She would _not _transfigure Zinc. He'd die of fright.

Kyle was perfectly OK with this plan. He was breaking rules, and therefore he was immensely happy. He loved breaking rules. 'Leah, quit _holding _him…' Kyle hissed at her.

'He'll get hyper and run.' She sighed, 'C'mon, Kyle, you go first.'

She nodded at the pillar.

'No, you go. I'll bring Zinc with me.' Kyle said. She nodded and walked through the pillar, pulling her trunk along with her.

'Zinc, c'mon.' Kyle whispered to Zinc, who was baring his teeth at the pillar. The dog sat down firmly and refused to move, like he was saying _You bring Leah back first. I'm NOT leaving her behind._ 'Zinc, this is no time to be stubborn! Leah's on the OTHER side!'

He tried to wrestle Zinc in. People stared, because obviously, he looked rather stupid. Finally, he managed to lift a growling (silently) Zinc into his arms, and straight into the pillar.

'God, Leah, Zinc is _so _heavy! Like you! Hey… Leah?'

There were thousands of students rushing into the Hogwarts express, but none of them was Leah. None of them was dressed in a dark coat, with dark celeb sunglasses.

'Shoot… Zinc, come on, boy…' Kyle groaned, and Zinc, unable to gather the guts to go explore this interesting new place without a voice and Leah, followed meekly, his tail stuck between his legs.

He climbed into the carriage, and walked through, making way for Zinc so that no one would touch the dog and get suspicious. Why did Leah have to keep a HUGE dog? Why not a Chihuahua or something…?

He pushed open a random door and poked his head in, 'Is this full…?'

It contained a gaggle of girls, the same age as he was. 'I'm afraid it is, sorry…' one of the girls said. She was a red-head, and her friend was crooning over a furry little cat.

Zinc's fur rose and he tried to push past Kyle.

'Ah… _stop it…_ Oh, well- ugh- tha- aha!' Kyle had been trying not to get shoved forward by Zinc. He now shoved back with all his might, sending Zinc back effectively. The girls were looking at him weirdly.

'Are you alright?' the girl holding the cat asked, 'Hey, are you _new_? Because I haven't seen you around before… and if I had, I would've _noticed…_' She had short curly blonde hair and she was beaming really sweetly.

Yeah. Kyle was used to the female-folk noticing him. He was drop-dead gorgeous and smart and witty and… yes, he did lack modesty _slightly_…

'Yeah I'm new. Well, I got to hurry. See you girls around later.' He slammed the door shut, and turned to glare at Zinc, who had now turned away and was bounding through the narrow (and thankfully empty) corridor.

Kyle sped forward and slid open one door just before Zinc hurtled against it in his rage (He hadn't been allowed to go after a cat AND he couldn't find LEAH anywhere!! Not to mention he'd been so nastily shoved back by Kyle…)

'Is something wrong, mate?'

Kyle stopped staring at Zinc, who had paused and found a piece of sandwich on the floor and was now gobbling it up. He looked at the people occupying this compartment- it was quite empty. There were four boys, the same age as him. They were looking at him with odd expressions.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Can I sit here? All the other compartments are full.' He said, feeling relieved that Zinc was OK now.

'No, not really-' A boy with hair falling into his eyes began, but his friend- a sandy-haired, wary looking boy nudged him.

'Yeah, sure.' The sandy-haired guy said.

Another boy, with inky black hair and hazel eyes and specs, who'd asked if he was OK, looked at him curiously as he sat down. 'Are you new here? Don't reckon I've seen you before…'

'Yeah, I'm new.' Kyle said, 'Me and my twin.'

'Are you the Ebony twins…?' a plump boy asked, looking at him.

Kyle grinned, 'That's us. I'm Kyle Ebony.'

'Nice to meet you. I'm Remus. This is James. Sirius. And Peter.' The sandy-haired boy said, grinning back at him.

'Where's your twin?' Sirius asked, looking around.

'She's… I don't know.' Kyle said, suddenly worrying. Where _was _Leah?

Just as he thought that, the door burst open and a girl in a dark coat, with the sash open, and sunglasses in her hand stood there, looking pale and worried.

'Kyle!' she said, as she looked at him, 'Kyle, where's-'

BANG.

She fell back with a painful thud as Zinc jumped onto her and looked at her accusingly. She'd been so worried she'd only seen Kyle, thinking Zinc was lost. But Zinc had noticed her the minute she'd opened the door.

'You OK?!' Sirius asked, getting out of his seat to help her.

Kyle rushed forward at once, 'Nah, its fine… Leah, c'mon…' If Sirius tried to help her up, he'd feel Zinc.

Leah managed to shove Zinc off without looking too weird, and stood up. As she looked at the four boys in the face, Remus looked surprised.

'You're Leah Ebony, aren't you?' he asked.

She nodded and sat down beside Kyle when he made space for her. 'Leah, this is Remus.' He said, 'And-'

'I'm James, this is Sirius and that's Peter.' James grinned at her and ran a hand through his hair, 'Which house do you guys want to be in?'

They both shrugged simultaneously.

'I don't care.' Kyle said, 'Any of the houses will do.'

'Including Slytherin?' Sirius asked darkly.

'They're cunning.' Leah found herself pointing out, 'And they have a whole lot of _other _interesting traits. You're obviously a Gryffindor.'

Zinc nuzzled her foot affectionately and proudly.

Sirius laughed, 'How did you know that?'

Leah stared at him impassively, not smiling or laughing in return. That happened to her when she was around other people. She lost the ability to be human. 'Your ties. And the way you immediately made a jab at the Slytherin house.'

Remus hid a smile behind his book, and Peter hurriedly stuffed his tie into his pocket, dragging along the other three ties too. Sirius had knotted them together in an attempt to tie James up when they'd come into the compartment.

Leah took out her notebook and a pen. She crossed her legs, put the glasses into her bag, and started writing in it furiously.

The four boys all turned and looked at Kyle, eyebrows raised.

'Her hobby.' He mouthed.

Remus cleared his throat, 'So, um, where were you before, Kyle…?'

'Muggle school. I learnt magic at home.' He said automatically, 'Leah was home-schooled.'

'_Muggle _school _and _magic? Why?' James asked, looking horrified.

'Not everyone's as lazy as you are, Prongs.' Remus told him.

Sirius rolled his eyes, 'SO. Who wants something off the trolley?' They could hear the trundling of wheels down the corridor, as the lady approached.

Zinc sat up and sniffed at the smell of ham sandwiches. Leah and Kyle looked at him at the same time. As Zinc stood, Leah threw down her pen, making it look accidental, and Kyle threw a strip of gum from his pocket.

'Would you like anything, dears?'

_CRASH._

Zinc howled (but no one heard him) as Leah and Kyle both partially landed on him. Leah groaned and rubbed her head and Kyle rubbed his thigh.

'Shit! What is wrong with you both?' Sirius asked, holding out a hand to Leah and Kyle. At that time, Zinc paused and leant forward to sniff Sirius's hand, suddenly very excited. Leah nudged Zinc away, and stood herself, ignoring the hand. She didn't take _hands_ to get up.

'None of you got hurt, right?' Remus asked, looking concerned. Leah sat back down and fingered the bump on her head. She'd mend it when she reached Hogwarts…

'Some Honeydukes chocolate ought to make you feel better, dearie…' The lady said, holding out a small slab of it, 'Here. You can have that for free.'

'No, it's fine. We'll pay.' Kyle said and took out the money.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

'Put Zinc under control, Leah!' Kyle hissed at his sister, 'My butt still _hurts _from that fall…'

Leah lugged her trunk behind her. She hung her head, and finally Kyle realized it wasn't because she was ignoring him. It was because she felt guilty and was on the verge of tears.

He softened a bit, 'OK, he's actually been pretty good for a dog that's been put under a Silencing Charm and hasn't eaten anything since two hours.' He punched her playfully, 'Thanks to your amazing training.'

Leah turned her face away, 'You go on, OK? I'll come by myself. Look. Remus is waving.'

True. Remus was waving them over. Kyle was about to drag Leah too, but she turned and walked towards one of the last carriages, closely followed by Zinc.

Great.

Now she was mad at him, and she was NEVER going to admit that she NEEDED him because she INCAPABLE of making friends with HUMAN BEINGS.

An arm slung around his neck and James was suddenly hauling him over to Remus, 'C'mon, Kyle. We're going to show you around. Hagrid said.'

Kyle was hauled into one of the coaches. Sirius, Remus and Peter all grinned at him.

Meanwhile, Leah walked along the coaches, peering into each one. Finally, when she was loosing hope, she found herself looking at vaguely familiar faces.

'Hey, there!' one of the girls said, beaming. 'Are you lost? You can sit here, you know… move up, Angie…'

Angie- a girl with short blonde curls- grinned and held out a hand. 'Come on in, whadidusayurnamewas.'

Leah looked at the hand and then at Angie. She bent down to pick up her bag, whispering to Zinc that he should jump up without touching anyone once she'd climbed up. When Alice- the plump girl who'd recognized her- had finished helping her with her trunks, she climbed in and Zinc followed. Despite his large size, he managed to squeeze onto Leah's lap, making an effort to not touch any of the other four girls.

The red-haired girl Leah recalled as Lily and the long-blonde-haired girl named Marlene both smiled at her warmly, and offered her the Every Flavored beans they were eating.

Leah shook her head and denied the offer.

'So, did you find your brother?' Marlene asked.

'He _was _the cute hunk with the dark hair and _totally amazing _eyes, wasn't he?' Angie asked. To Leah's immense relief, the kitten she'd seen before was no longer here.

'Where's the… kitten?' she asked.

'Oh, he's Lisa's. She's gone with Taylor. Her boyfriend.' Lily said, 'Leah, do you have a pain in your stomach…? You're grimacing.'

Leah _did _have a pain in her stomach, where Zinc was because Zinc was partially on it. She shook her head, 'No, I'm fine. Just had a stomach cramp. It's gone now.'

'Aren't you Leah Ebony?' Marlene asked, scrutinizing her, 'I saw you on the newspaper. For the book you'd written. I like the name… _A Person Who Kicks Dogs. _Haven't read it though- it's about politics, isn't it?'

'Not completely.' Leah said briefly, 'I exposed some secrets about a famous politician.' _Because I hate him. He kicked my dog. Hence the title- _A Person who Kicks Dogs.

Lily stared at her in surprise, 'I think I've read one of your other books… the funny one.'

Leah shrugged, 'Most of it was pranks Kyle played. I wrote them down. You'll see his name in the brackets.'

'I heard you spent the journey with the Marauders.' Angie said, 'What was it like?'

'The who…?' Leah asked, unable to hide her confusion.

Lily laughed, 'Nice to meet someone who hasn't heard of them!'

'Sirius, James, Remus and Peter.' Alice said, 'They're the most notorious pranksters in Hogwarts! In the entire history, I should think… we barely have a full week which is entirely peaceful.'

Leah found herself smiling. She was SMILING at people she barely knew… it was disastrous… catastrophic…and well, kind of nice to feel included and wanted.

Angie was now prattling on and on about Quidditch, and to her surprise, Leah found herself occasionally saying something about it too.

The truth was, Leah had never been accepted before. Normally, people thought she had something weird going on. Which was why she'd been home schooled- she'd been the rebellious, anti-social, spooky _freak._ She had no friends, and she didn't _want _any friends either… but here, she was with people like her. With other witches and wizards who didn't have a problem with her writing books, and grimacing for no apparent reasons.

Zinc nuzzled her affectionately. By the time they got out, she'd really started to warm up to these four girls.

'Leah! Leah!'

She turned around and saw Kyle hurrying through the crowd towards her, 'Come on. It's time to go for the Sorting.'

Leah looked around, 'I need to find somewhere to put Zinc.'

'Zinc? Leah, we barely have ten minutes.' Kyle hissed.

Leah looked at her watch and then at Zinc who was pawing a dead frog. 'You hold the teachers off- say I had to go to the lavatory. I'll leave Zinc somewhere outside…'

She looked around, and managed to use her wand to haul Zinc off. He howled at her miserably, not really understanding what was going on.

'Zinc,' she said finally, as they stumbled into a small grassy area, covered by stone walls. She bent down and kissed his head and hugged him, 'Zinc, I'll explain everything later. For now, stay here… and be a good boy.' She took his bowl out of her bag and filled it with the box of dog-food she'd been carrying. He licked her and blinked as if to say, _OK. Later. EVERYTHING. _Then he attacked the food, and Leah barricaded the one entrance to the tiny room. Then she ran back to the Hall, outside which Kyle was waiting.

'Leah. We're supposed to go in any moment now.' Kyle said, grasping her arm. He rubbed her back as she caught her breath. 'Where's Zinc?'

'I found this covered outdoor place. Gave him his dinner and then I came back…'

'Kyle Ebony!' a voice called loudly.

Kyle nodded at her and then stepped into the hall.

The hat was placed on his head. After ten minutes (yes, very long) it said "GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers. Leah saw the Marauders make place for him. Half of her was jealous that they were stealing her twin from her. She barely had time to ponder about it, though, because then Albus Dumbledore called her name.

She walked in, breaking out in cold sweat. Every eye was on her… She perched herself on the chair and pulled the hat over her head.

_Ah… Leah _Ebony _I see. Cunning…very much so. And intelligent. But brave. You stand up for what you think is right… it's confusing. Slytherin or Gryffindor? Or maybe even Ravenclaw! But I'd rather Slytherin or Gryffindor…_

Leah was chanting in her head, 'I want to be with Kyle. Put me with Kyle. In Gryffindor. Gryffindor.'

_Kyle, eh? Your twin. Does he need you as much as you need him? I think not… but if you insist… _"GRYFFINDOR!"

Angie almost leapt out of her seat cheering. 'I knew Leah had it in her!' she told Alice, beaming.

Lily and Alice made place for Leah in between them.

'Gosh, you look ruffled up.' Alice said, running a hand through Leah's hair, 'That's some beautiful hair you've got, Leah.'

Leah smiled, 'Thanks.' Then, she stopped and stared for sometime, and said, thoughtfully, 'You have amazing eyes, Alice.'

And she meant it. Alice's eyes were honey-brown and warm and kind and right now very surprised (pleasantly so).

Alice blushed, 'Oh, lots of people have said that before, Leah.' She said, 'Though none of them said it as truthfully as you just did_._'

Leah looked at the vast plates of food appearing in front of her. 'Oh, wow… do you know where the kitchens are?'

Alice looked at her in surprise, 'No. Why?'

'Just asking… I stay up late sometimes. Writing. I need food, you see.' Leah lied. It was _partially _true, though.

'The kitchens?' Angie asked, leaning forward. 'You should ask James and Sirius. I'm dead certain they know. They always provide us with food for celebrations in the common room.'

'You stay away from them, Leah.' Lily said, darkly. 'They're trouble. With a capital T. And tell your brother to keep away too.'

'Kyle's trouble too.' Leah said, 'As I said before, his pranks made one of my books…'

She waited until the others were engaged in a talk about the Marauders pranks, and then she swiftly began to wrap up sausages and bread and ham slices into a napkin.

She looked across the table at Kyle. He was talking to James, but Sirius Black was looking her way.

He grinned at her, and _winked._

Leah looked away stonily, and stuffed the package into her robes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It turned out that she was in the same dorm as Lily, Alice, Angie and Marlene. She was pleased to know that.

But she knew she could _not _leave Zinc outside the whole night. She would have to find a place for him to spend the night and most of the day, too.

Finally, they went up to the Gryffindor common room. It was warmly lit, and had lots of comfortable couches and armchairs and cushions scattered around, on a thick red carpet. Leah frowned, and looked at the huge common room. Maybe there was a trapdoor or something… sadly, there was no way she could scan this entire place for a hidden and possibly nonexistent door without seeming suspicious.

'Ebony.' A voice called, and she turned around to see Sirius Black making his way to her, 'Your brother said you should come down here in an hour. He said he's got your toothbrush or something.'

Leah nodded.

'Good night, Ebony… can I call you Leah?'

She shrugged, 'If you like.'

Black smiled at her, almost alluringly. 'I'd _love _it.' Leah drew back in shock, realizing how close he was to her. How had he moved closer so… inconspicuously?

Her heart was hammering at a ridiculously fast pace in her chest, and for reasons unknown to her, she found herself blurting, 'Where's the kitchen, Black?'

'The _kitchen_?' Sirius looked amused. 'Why?'

'I need to know.' She said coolly, 'Where is it?'

'Um, near the Hufflepuff Chambers… there's a tapestry with fruits. You tickle the pear, it laughs and the door opens.'

Leah nodded and walked away. She went downstairs after seeing her dorm- it took a lot to convince Angie to let her go for a walk. She had put on a jacket, and was carrying one of the spare blankets with her, and two cushions. She made her way outside, praying she would met no one along the way. She did look pretty suspicious- carrying a blanket, two thick pillows and a small bumpy package balanced precariously in her arms.

It was cold and dark and scary in the vast corridors, but Leah didn't care. She knew where she'd left Zinc.

On the way, she saw a ghost.

'Good morning, Miss. Ebony!' he said, bowing to her, 'I've met your mother and father, I have. Lovely people. Bright students.'

'And you are…?'

'Sir Nicholas. Or more popularly known as Nearly Headless Nick.' He said, smiling. Leah nodded. Yes. She'd heard about him being _nearly _headless… He was a ghost who'd been around here for hundreds of years. He should know about a spare room or something.

'Sir Nicholas,' she asked, 'do you know any spare small rooms or anything?'

'Why?' he asked, looking at her in wonder.

'I… I like to write, you see. I need completely isolated places for that. And since you're so nice, and I've heard so much about you, I was _sure _you would know…' Leah had learnt the art of sweet-talking people into doing what she wanted since she had first learnt to speak. It came in handy when she wanted half of Kyle's candy bar.

Sir Nicholas looked flattered, 'Of course… there's a small room, and quite a large broom cupboard not very far from the Gryffindor common room. You could use that… no one ever goes there.'

Leah smiled and nodded, 'Thank you very much.' Then she dashed off, towards the place she'd left Zinc. Zinc looked at her dejectedly when she entered. He knew she was going to haul him off again.

And she did.

She found the room- it was empty, small and warm, with a tiny window to let in oxygen. She arranged the blanket and the pillow, and put the sausages and ham and bread into the bowl. Zinc attacked it hungrily, and she filled another bowl with water. Then she sat with him for sometime, her arm around him while he snoozed and she read a book.

She stayed immersed in the world of a Harvard class- their problems seemed so teensy compared to hers, right now, though she knew being disowned by your dad and trying to shock yourself to death was no joke.

Anyway, half an hour later, she put her things back into her bag, made sure Zinc had snuggled into the bed she'd made for him comfortably, and then went back to the Gryffindor dorms.

Kyle was sitting in the empty common room.

'Where's Zinc?' he asked.

'Found a room to keep him in.' she said, smiling. 'It's perfect…'

Kyle shrugged, 'OK. How're you getting along? I saw you with those girls today. You looked… different.'

Leah shrugged. 'I'm sleepy, Kyle. Good night. And don't forget to change your socks tomorrow.'

***

Leah awoke very early the other day and got up. She had a bath, pulled on her uniform robes and stepped outside (The Fat Lady told her it was _six _in the morning, and she sounded very disgruntled because she'd been awoken so 'nastily' from her 'beauty sleep') with her books in her backpack to get breakfast from the kitchens for Zinc and then take him for a walk.

The kitchens were exactly where Black had said they were. She tickled the pear and within minutes, she was standing in a large, warm cozy room with stoves and pans and the smell of amazing bacon and bread and juice.

The housel elves jumped up at once. 'Would Miss like something to eat?'

'Some bacon, Miss? It is warm and fresh!'

'Chocolate pudding, miss! I is making it meself!'

'Sit down, Miss. Sit down!'

Leah shook her head, looking at them gratefully. 'I need a lot of food; you see… at least three meals a day. They should have meat, rice, and bread… It would be especially nice if you could mix it all together into a kind of porridge.'

'Like the one Hagrid's dog wants, Miss?' one of them asked, eagerly, 'Miss shall have it then! Right now?'

'No, for now it's alright… only for lunch.' Leah said quickly, 'I'd just like some bread and meat now, thank you.'

The house elves zoomed around and got a small wicker basket ready for her, with diced ham slices, and a small bottle with warm milk and bread. Leah thanked them again and again and hurried off with the food.

Zinc had left a little present for her when she reached. She took some paper out of her bag and scooped the potty up while he dug into his food. Then she used her wand to cover it with a paper bag, and then carried the packet in her hand as she took Zinc out for a walk. She'd dispose of it in the forest or somewhere…

Zinc was happy to be able to stretch his limbs again. She waved her wand so that he was no longer silenced.

He barked joyfully and smothered her with licks, before gamboling away on the fields.

Leah sat down underneath a large oak tree (after she'd thrown away the potty) and watched him play around. He stopped suddenly and barked at her expectantly. Leah laughed and took out his red ball, which she threw and he ran after.

Then he brought it back. She picked it up, ignoring the saliva, and threw it again.

She repeated the procedure a few times and then took him back to his room. As she went back to the common room, hands sticky with saliva, she bumped into someone.

'Leah.' Sirius Black said, looking surprised, 'How come you're up so early?'

'Padfoot, who is it?' Another voice asked. James was sitting on a couch, doing up his laces. He looked up and saw her.

'Morning, Leah.' He said, 'We're off for Quidditch practice.'

Leah nodded. She didn't remember asking why _they_ were up so early. But they'd told her anyway, so whatever…

'How come you're up so early?' Sirius asked again.

'That's not really any of your business.' Leah said, rather sharply.

Sirius and James looked at her in surprise. 'Touch!' Sirius said, 'Sorry, Leah. Didn't mean to offend you!'

Leah shrugged, feeling slightly guilty for snapping at them like that. 'Actually I was taking a walk.'

'Right.' he said, 'Well, see you at class.' He winked at her and they walked off. 'Come and watch if you want to!' he added, over his shoulder.

She went back upstairs, where the other girls were now awake and getting ready.

'Leah!' Angie said, waving the hand clutching a hairbrush at her, 'Where _were _you?'

'I went for a walk…' she said.

'Comb your hair, Leah. It's windswept and Professor McGonagall _hates _messy hair.' Lily said.

'Should I tie it up for you?' Marlene asked eagerly, since she'd done up her own golden waves in a very nice ponytail.

'No, it's alright. I don't like tying my hair up.' Leah said, smiling. She washed her face, and then combed her hair. It fell onto her shoulders in dark waves. When she was in light, you could see it wasn't plain dark brown- it had golden, honey-blonde, reddish-black and lighter brown strands in it, too. Unlike Kyle's.

Angie tried to get her to roll up her sleeves and tie her tie loosely, but she didn't want to. She didn't care if she looked like a "nerd" as Kyle put it, later.

'First lesson—potions.' Lily said, looking pleased, 'Come on, you guys. I'm starving…'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Leah found herself sitting beside Kyle during breakfast. On the other side of her was Alice.

'Morning, girls.' Sirius said, smirking at them. He was sitting in front of Kyle, beside James, who was sitting beside Lily, looking very pleased with himself.

'Morning, Sirius.' Angie said, 'You've met Leah, haven't you?'

'Couldn't have missed her.' He said, looking at Leah, who was pretending that she hadn't noticed that he way trying (and failing) to engage her in conversation.

'Bacon, fatso?' Kyle asked, piling a whole lot of it on Leah's plate.

'Kyle!' Leah snarled, outraged, forgetting that she was normally tongue-tied in front of people. 'You've got only _half _of what you gave me!'

'Oh, stop snapping at him, Leah.' Alice laughed, 'You've got a long day ahead. You should eat.'

Kyle treated her to a heart-melting grin, and then looked triumphantly at Leah, who promptly hit him on his shoulder.

'Stupid womanizingprat.' She muttered to herself, and then turned to the problem at hand- the virtual MOUNTAIN of bacon on her plate.

'I can take half of that if you like.' Peter said, from beside Sirius.

Leah looked at him in surprise and then felt her lips curve into _another _smile. 'Really?'

'No.' Kyle interrupted, 'She has to eat everything on her plate, Peter.'

'Shut up, _little _brother.'

'You're two _minutes _older!'

'That's one twenty seconds.' Marlene interjected helpfully. It made Kyle groan and shut up.

Sirius took Peter's plate and held it out to Leah. She filled it up with half her bacon, and then added a bit more, so that she had only a small amount.

'It's nice watching you both fighting.' James observed.

'Hilarious.' Sirius agreed.

Lily rolled her eyes at Leah and asked him to pass the chocolate milk.

'Did you give Zinc breakfast?' Kyle whispered to Leah.

She nodded. 'I went down to the kitchens.'

'How did you find the _kitchens_?' he asked, in surprise.

'I asked. The elves said they'll give me all three meals every day.'

She finished the last of her bacon and left with Angie and Alice.

They were early for potions, so Leah sat and wrote Zinc's new schedule down in her book.

'Leah! What're you writing?' a voice asked, right in her ear.

She jumped and looked at the person in alarm. Oh. She wiped the alarm off her face and replaced it with indifference. It was only Sirius Black.

'Nothing.' She said, slamming her book shut and putting it into her pocket.

Remus smiled at her, 'We're sitting behind you.'

'Oh.'

Kyle sat down beside her, 'And I'm sitting beside you. Sadly.'

'Kyle, I wonder why you don't be so polite more often.' She said sarcastically.

Alice turned around in her seat, 'Leah, maybe we can sit together in divination. If you want to, that is…'

Leah nodded. 'Yeah, I want to.'

Angie spun around too, 'You know, Professor Slughorn has parties almost every month? I'm sure you both will be invited, because you're _Ebony_ and quite famous and all that…'

'You mean he only invites famous people or if they're from famous pureblood families?' Kyle asked, frowning.

'No.' Angie said, 'You get invited if you're popular, or brilliant at studies or Quidditch or if your parents are famous. Slughorn's not got anything against Muggle borns.'

'Hey, you guys.' Marlene said, flopping down in the empty seat in front of Angie and Alice with Lily. She swept her long, golden waves of hair out of her eyes, 'What're you talking about?'

'Slughorn's parties.' Alice said.

'Kyle.' Sirius said, 'How good are you at potions?'

'Me? I suck at it. Leah's amazing.'

'Cool. So you're helping me and Sirius, Leah.' James said simply.

Leah blinked at him.

'Only if you want to.' Sirius added hastily.

'Morning, all of you.' A voice called, and a plump man in expensive black robes stepped in. He beamed at Leah and Kyle, 'Ah. Fresh faces! I've known your parents, I have. Pity about your mother… very sad…'

Leah shifted uncomfortably in her seat and Kyle coughed pointedly.

Slughorn seemed to realize he shouldn't be talking about their personal life in front of the entire class. He waved a hand, and changed the subject.

'Now, _I _will be allotting partners this time,' he said, looking at the Marauders pointedly, 'So that friends do not sit together. You will be picking chits from this flower-pot…'

The flower-pot was passed around. Leah picked up her chit, praying that it would be Kyle.

_Sirius Black_.

Kyle picked his. 'Who's Maarco Flint?'

'Slytherin.' Sirius said, 'See that guy over there? That's him.'

James sighed. 'I get a slimy Slytherin too… You, Leah?'

'Sirius.' She said.

Sirius grinned, 'Should've said so earlier!'

Kyle picked up his books and moved over and Sirius came forward. 'What's that on the board…?'

'Metamorphous potion.' Leah said. She'd made it a hundred times before. Sirius flipped over to the correct page in his book.

Soon, they were working on their potion. 'Stirring it anti-clockwise will make it quicker.' Sirius said, reaching out for the long spoon Leah was using.

She shook her head, and dipped the spoon in and out twelve times.

'Why did you do that?' Sirius asked, in surprise, 'It's turning blue already! We skipped fifteen minutes of stirring.'

Leah looked at him. 'It's common sense.' She said in a robotic voice, 'The reactions are the same…'

'How did you get twelve?'

'Multiply the number of stirrings by three.'

Sirius smirked, 'Evans is going to have to run for her money now.'

Leah added the last few ingredients, and then looked around.

'Need something?' Sirius asked.

'Scissors. I need to get one clump of freshly cut hair.' She said, parting some of her own hair to cut.

Sirius frowned and produced scissors. 'You've got beautiful hair.' He said, hoping he'd delivered the compliment sneakily. 'Cut mine.'

Leah shrugged, ignoring the flattering remark. She didn't do _flirting_. She had never done it before, and she wasn't about to do it now. She reached up and took a small bunch of his hair. 'Don't move.'

Sirius looked at her in the eye, a smile tugging at his lips. His eyes were intense and hypnotizing and for some reason, they reminded her of _Zinc._

And this was not possible, because she _loved _Zinc and didn't give Sirius Black a damn.

She averted her gaze quickly, because for some stupid reason, her stomach turned a few summersaults. She positioned the scissors and snipped a centimeter of hair. She drew away immediately, and Sirius watched her dip it into some silvery liquid and then into the potion. It instantly started changing colors, before settling on a pale grey.

'My, my!' Slughorn said, hurrying over. 'You and Lily completed it at the same time! You have your mother's talent I see!'

Sirius looked at her appreciatively, only to see that she wasn't looking at him. She had pressed herself against the wall, as far as she could sit from him, and was now scribbling in her notebook again.

Sirius frowned. _Why _wasn't she madly in love with him like every other girl?! She hadn't even eyed his body!

His pride was wounded. Any other girl would've _fallen at his feet _if he'd given them even half the attention he'd been giving Leah.

Remus looked at Sirius and saw his friend staring at Leah with a half-angry, half-baffled expression.

He stifled a snort.

Poor Sirius.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 **

'Mr. and Miss. Ebony.' Professor McGonagall said to them, 'I would like to know how far you are in Transfiguration.'

'We know everything we should know, Professor.' Kyle said.

Professor McGonagall nodded, looking satisfied. 'If you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask. Miss. Ebony, is something wrong? Do you have something to do at this time?'

Leah looked up from staring anxiously at her wrist-watch. 'No, Professor. I was just… wondering if my watch was alright.'

The lesson began.

Leah was sitting in between Lily and Angie. They were transfiguring glasses to butterflies. It was so easy, but she couldn't concentrate.

All she could think of was Zinc. It had been three periods already- almost four hours. She needed to see him. What if he'd suffocated? Or he'd choked, or howled himself to death or died of fright…

There was a crunching sound as the fragile glass cup crushed between her hands.

'Leah!' Lily gasped, 'Are you alright?!'

'Your hand's bleeding… there's glass inside it!' Angie said, gingerly taking her hand and looking horrified, 'Professor McGonagall!'

The professor examined her hand and told her to go to the infirmary. 'Do you know where that is?' she asked. The blank look on Leah's face confirmed that she didn't. 'Who has transfigured their glasses…?' Her eyes swept over the tables, on one of which, Sirius was now urgently waving his wand, and cursing when the glass remained a glass. 'Ah, Mr. Lupin. Take her to the infirmary please.'

Remus got up and smiled at Leah.

Kyle was shooting her a worried look.

'Here.' Remus said, taking out a hanky, 'Wrap it in this. It's clean.'

Leah looked at it, and it _seemed _pretty clean. And Remus obviously wasn't a devil in disguise like Kyle, so he couldn't have had the inside covered in invisible snot or anything, like her brother would have done. She thanked him and wrapped her hand in it tentatively, watching as the blood soaked up the white material.

The nurse- Madame Promfrey- reprimanded her for being so careless/clumsy/stupid and then used a steel instrument to pull out the glass. Leah winced each time she pulled the vile shards out, but when she'd bathed it in some weird medicine, it felt much better.

Still scolding Leah, she bandaged it up and gave her a few last instructions.

'Don't take the bandage off. And change it if it gets wet.'

Now Leah had an excuse to go meet Zinc. 'I'll find my way back.' She told Remus, 'I… I've got a tablet in my dorm. It'll take away the pain.'

Remus looked doubtful, but he went back to class without asking further questions.

She ran all the way to the broom cupboard. She pushed the door open with her unhurt hand and was thrown back by overexcited Zinc.

'Gerrof, Zinc… I missed you so much… I was so worried! But you're still heavy, boy.' she said, smothering him in kisses after he'd let her get back on her knees.

He growled at her silently, as if to say that he too had missed her and he too had been worried. Then he nudged her bandaged hand and looked at her with his eyes questioning.

'Nah, it's nothing. I'm clumsy, you know… OK, Zinc, here's some biscuits… I've got to go now. See you later.'

It hurt to shove him back in there again, baiting him with biscuits, but she knew she had no choice. When she entered the transfiguration room again, she stopped and felt confusion seep through her.

Kyle was moving towards the door. Had he got into trouble? Yeah, knowing him, he'd probably turned a glass into a three-hundred foot evil man-eating butterfly. But the class seemed quite fine and undamaged, except that they were all staring at her and Kyle.

'We've got a call from home.' He said in a low voice when he reached her, 'It's important.'

Professor McGonagall nodded at her, and Leah hurried after Kyle, her heard beating unsteadily. Was her dad OK? Was Ian OK? Nan? She was old. Maybe she'd had a Cardiac arrest… a stroke…

They were being led by a frowning ghost. 'Vampire lollypops.' He said smugly to two stone gargoyles.

They slid open and the twins entered the headmaster's office.

Though it was gorgeous, and under other circumstances, Leah would have snatched out her notebook in a second and started writing every detail about this room's architecture, right now they had eyes for nothing but the tall, stately old wizard in the deep purple robes.

Dumbledore looked at them gravely, and said, 'Your father wished to tell you something very important. Especially you, Miss. Ebony.'

It had to be something bad related to the book… some _serious _controversy had happened… oh, _why _had she got revenge in such a public way?

Leah stumbled over to the fireplace, Kyle close behind her.

Their father looked very sad and worried. 'Leah. Kyle… I have some terrible news, honey…' He was looking at Leah mostly.

'Wh… what, dad?' Leah squeaked, 'Is Ian alright? Nan?'

'No one's… _dead_, right, dad?' Kyle asked, putting a hand on her shoulder and leaning forward.

Their father shook his head, and said, 'Zinc is missing.'

Leah and Kyle were both good at acting. Leah stared in what seemed to be shock for a while and then wailed and covered her face, 'Dad! What do you _mean _he's _missing_?'

Kyle put an arm around her shoulder, pretending to be comforting.

'Leah, we couldn't find him… and then we found a tunnel going through the fence.' (Yes, Kyle had done it to make it look like Zinc had run away). 'He must have dug his way out like he did when he was younger. We can't find him anywhere. There _is_ a search party looking for him, but so far, we haven't seen him.'

When their dad finally went, looking very miserable, Dumbledore looked at them with calm, understanding sympathy. 'Come, sit. Zinc is your dog?'

'Y-yes…' Leah said. She'd managed to produce artificial tears.

'I'm sure he will be found.' Dumbledore said, 'Would you both like a drink?'

Kyle felt his insides squirm because of the piercing blue eyes looking into him. It felt like Dumbledore could see _inside _him…

'No, its fine, sir.' He said, 'I'll take Leah… I know what she'd like right now.'

Dumbledore nodded, 'Of course… only, don't get caught eating right now.'

His eyes twinkled and Kyle was sure he knew something was going on.

They stepped out. 'He knows, Leah.' Kyle said in a whisper, 'I'm_ sure _he knows!'

'You're paranoid, Kyle.' Leah said, looking pale and dejected- almost like Zinc had _actually_ got lost. She hated lying to their father like that…

They went and sat down outside for a while, by which time class was over. Leah looked up to see the Marauders coming over.

'What happened, mate?' James asked, looking at Kyle and then at Leah, who was looking worse than Kyle.

'Zinc is missing.' Kyle said, 'He's Leah's dog.'

'I'm sure he'll be found, Leah.' Remus said comfortingly.

She shrugged. 'He'd have come back by now if he was alright.'

'Dogs are amazingly loyal.' Sirius said quietly, 'He'll come back even he's not alright. Which dog is he?'

Leah rubbed her hand over the bandage. Kyle realized, with some surprise, that if Zinc _had _been missing, what Sirius had just said, so calmly, like he was a real dog-expert, would have comforted Leah the most.

'Alaskan Malamute.'

Sirius grinned, 'Amazing! They grow huge. And they're tough dogs. He's probably fine.'

Leah looked at him and smiled faintly, 'Yeah, I suppose so…'

'Leah! Leah, is your hand OK?' Angie, Marlene, Alice and Lily were hurrying over.

'Is everyone at home alright?' Lily asked, looking at Leah, with genuine concern.

'Her dog is missing.' Peter told her.

'But we've made her feel better.' James said, his hand immediately going to his hair as he looked eagerly at Lily, 'Right, Leah?'

Leah nodded. 'Yes. James was very helpful.'

She had grasped the fact that he wanted Lily to see how nice he was.

'Can I write on your bandage?' Marlene asked, 'I know it's not a plaster but I love doing bandages… it'd look so cool if it were bejeweled! I did that for my little sister when her leg broke.'

'I think it would be a waste of plastic jewels- which, by the way, we don't have.' Alice told her, 'Let's just write on it. Give me your hand, Leah.'

Leah stuck out her hand. The girls all crowded around it and used colored ink to draw and write on it.

'I want to do that too!' Sirius said, grinning (this meant he could lean over Leah's hand very suggestively), 'What's your favorite color?'

'Black.' She said, wondering if she should tell him that she'd rather he didn't draw on her hand. Leah was certain she could read Sirius Black's mind very well sometimes. He obviously wanted to take full advantage of leaning over her hand…

Kyle grinned; 'Let me write something, sis…' he took a pink quill from Angie and bent over it with Sirius. Sirius was drawing a stick-figure hugging a big sausage with legs.

'Why would Leah hug a sausage, mate?' James asked, 'And why does the sausage have legs and a salami on top too …?'

'I think it's supposed to be a dog, James.' Remus said.

'The salami's the head, isn't it, Sirius?' Peter asked, eagerly.

'_Obviously, _Wormtail.' James groaned, 'See, Sirius? Your drawings are so bad only Peter can interpret them right.'

Sirius rolled his eyes and told him to shut up, and then he had to let go of Leah's hand because it was time for the next lesson.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It was cold and the sun was just coming out.

Sirius clamped his hands on his broomstick and sped after James. 'It's cold, Jamsie-boy.' He called, in disgruntled tones, stating the obvious.

'Shut up, Padfoot.' James called back, 'Don't call me that!'

'Hot chocolate after.' Sirius said, 'So we'll land early today.'

James, being a devote flier, said obstinately that Sirius could land early and get himself chocolate, because he intended on flying and getting rid of the excess energy so that maybe he could impress Lily by not doing anything wrong in Potions (He sat quite close to her)

'Sssh…' Sirius said suddenly, holding a hand up and stopping. 'Did you hear that, Prongs…?'

'Hear what?'

'A dog barking…'

'Must've been Fang.' James glared at his best mate, with complete annoyance. It was freezing out here and Sirius was hearing things and making an issue out of it. Like always. He'd always been a bit dramatic.

Sirius shook his head, 'Fang sounds different.'

'It must be a stray which wandered in from the forest or something.' James said impatiently, 'C'mon, Padfoot…'

'That's not possible. Outside animals can't just enter school grounds. And the forest has no dogs. I'm the only dog on the grounds other than Fang!'

'How do you know that?' James demanded.

'Remus told me. It's in _Hogwarts: a History_.' Sirius said, 'I don't get it… let's go check it out, Prongs.'

James groaned and followed Sirius down to the ground. They climbed off the broomsticks and pretty much ran over to the lake.

***

If it hadn't been for Zinc's superior hearing, Leah would never have managed to hide in time.

Zinc had just brought the ball back, when he stopped and cocked his ears. He whined at her, like, _Someone's coming. Can I go see?_

'Shit.' Leah whispered, 'Zinc, stay quiet, OK? We have to hide.'

Zinc understood the words _stay quiet_ and _hide _very well. He gamboled over to a small alcove in the grass Leah had never noticed before. He looked at Leah expectantly. She hurried over, erasing their muddy footprints as she went. Then she crawled in after him.

She heard two people enter.

'See? There's no one here, Sirius.' James's voice said, 'You're hearing things, mate…'

Leah winced as Zinc started getting excited behind her. He seemed to want to jump out of the hiding place whenever he heard Sirius's voice. Leah turned and glared at him in the eye and he fell silent again.

'_Told _you I'm not hearing things.' Sirius said now.

There was silence for a few minutes.

'It's a red ball. Means nothing.' James replied.

Leah cursed herself mentally. She'd left Zinc's ball under the tree…

'It's got saliva on it, Prongs. A dog's been playing with it.'

'Fang, Sirius! _Fang._ The _huge _puppy Hagrid's just got!' James sounded pretty impatient now.

'Fang could _swallow _this ball if he put it in his mouth. No, it's a smaller dog. Not much smaller, but still small compared to Fang. With damn sharp teeth.'

James groaned, 'OK, Sirius. So this dog disappeared into thin air when we got here. I don't really _care, _Padfoot! Can we go _fly _now? We'll run out of practice and then we'll have to see Snivelly's smug smile when we lose the bloody match.'

She heard them walk away. She crawled out, surveying Zinc's dirty, muddy coat and her robes with dismay. It looked like they'd forgotten to put the ball back.

Zinc looked at her grumpily, and sniffed around. 'Your ball's gone, Zinc. Don't worry. I'll get you another one. Time to go back now…'

She looked at his muddy coat. She _never _used magic to clean Zinc. She used special Dr. Fitherhook's Dog Shampoo, Dr. Fitherhook's Dog Conditioner and a bunch of other Dr. Fitherhook stuff to wash him.

It was a painful procedure, because Zinc _hated _baths and ended up giving her one too.

Zinc nuzzled her affectionately and licked her face. She made him invisible and then led him back to his room. In the room, she hurriedly used her wand to clean up her robes and hair, which had mud sticking to them.

She walked out of the room and bumped straight into Kyle.

'Kyle.' She snapped, in a bad mood, 'Took you long enough to wake up!'

Kyle held up his hands, 'What's wrong with you, huh?'

'Do I _look _like something's wrong with me?'

'Actually, Leah, you do.'

She glared daggers at him and he held the gaze. He could continue forever. Leah knew her brother was amazing at staring matches…

She groaned and said, 'OK, you win. I almost got caught today.'

'By whom?' Kyle asked, leaning against the wall and looking unsurprised for some probably-lame reason.

'Sirius Black and James Potter. It was a close shave. Except now Zinc's got dirty… I need to give him a bath as soon as possible.'

Kyle frowned and looked at his twin who was staring at her feet. 'Leah, you do know we'll get caught sooner or later, right?'

'No, I don't.' she said curtly, trying to hide her hurt, because she felt he was trying to weasel his way out of helping. Not that he was helping much, anyway. 'Of course, there're more chances of us getting caught because it's just me sticking out for Zinc. _You_ aren't doing anything. Except maybe popping in to show your face to him once in a millennium.'

'Leah! You know that's not true—'

'Oh yeah?' she said, loosing her temper, '_How _is it not true? _I _found out where the kitchens are, _I _go and get his food every morning, afternoon and evening, _I _skip lessons to go meet him, _I _wake up at SIX in the morning to walk him, and then again at night too! While you're snoring in your warm bed!' Then she stopped, and looked at him, 'Of course, Zinc is my dog, and this whole thing was my idea… and if you don't want to be involved, you can just tell me.'

She turned on her heel and stormed off.

'Leah!' he called, 'C'mon, I don't want to fight right now!'

But she'd already disappeared around the corner. And he couldn't open the door and meet Zinc because it turned out that Leah had changed the password.

'Kyle!'

He turned and saw James and Sirius waving at him from down the corridor.

'What're you doing? Up so early?' Sirius asked.

'Thought I'd take a walk with Leah.'

'Saw her going down to breakfast.' James commented, 'But she didn't say hi when we waved at her.'

He shrugged, 'Yeah. She's in a bad mood right now. Where were you guys?'

'Flying.' James said, 'We're on the team, you know.'

Kyle brightened up a bit, 'What're you guys?'

'Chasers.' Sirius shrugged, 'Are you any good? We're having tryouts for Seeker and a Beater.'

Kyle shrugged. If Leah had been here, she might have put in that he was _very _good. Especially at Seeker. But of course, Leah was mad at him and probably wouldn't talk to him for a week. Once, she'd not talked to him for a _month _because he'd hurt her feelings over something.

Just then, Angie Snickers and Marlene Brady came down. 'Where's Leah?' Angie asked, 'She didn't come back to freshen up.'

'Down for breakfast.' The three of them said at the same time.

Marlene blinked at them, 'Uh. Thanks. Come on, Ange…'

*

Leah sat down at the breakfast table and took out her notebook. She started writing in it slowly, trying to stop thinking about that stupid Kyle, and how she'd have loved to connect her fist with his face.

She was also feeling immensely guilty. Zinc was having no fun staying shut in that room for most of the day… he'd have been so much better off at home.

She looked at her plate, and put down the pen and then put her head down.

'Morning, Leah.' Angie said, sitting down beside her. 'Why so poker-faced? Here, have some of this toast… its delicious- with extra butter and all that.'

'Ange, let her be.' Marlene said, looking at Leah, mouthing, _don't worry. I'll shut her up for you. _

But Angie was persistent. 'Come on, Leah. Give me a smile! Has anyone ever told you how absolutely stunning you look when you smile?'

'No.' she said, 'Angie, no, I don't want any more toast-'

'OK… cheese spread?' she asked, and put some of the creamy yellow cheese on Leah's plate without waiting for a reply.

What was with people trying to force-feed her every morning? Leah frowned. The last time she'd checked, she'd been just right- not skinny or fat. Did she _really _need fattening up? Her wrists and ankles seemed pretty OK…

She was distracted when the voice she least wanted to here right now interrupted her anxiety.

'Hey, Leah.' Kyle said, offering her a smile and sitting in front of her, with the Marauders.

Leah ignored him and concentrated on finishing the toast and the cheese and the omelet which Angie had put on her plate.

'Didn't see you out for a walk today.' Sirius said casually, giving her a _not-so-normal_ smile. Not so normal, because it wasn't a _smile_. More like the grin James was throwing at Lily right now.

She nodded, not looking up or bothering to say anything.

Just then, a tall, serious looking Seventh Year boy, stopped and told Sirius and James, 'Quidditch tryouts today. If you know anyone interested, bring them over.'

'Tomas Snoddler- captain of the Gryffindor team.' James told Kyle as Tomas walked away, 'You'll come right? To try out?'

'Yeah. Wouldn't miss it.' He grinned, 'Leah, you want to come?'

She threw him a cold, _Are you talking to _me? look and then added sugar to her juice. Sirius raised his eyebrows at Kyle. Kyle rolled his eyes.

'Leah, you play Quidditch?' Lily asked, looking surprised.

'No. Not really.'

'She can do the Wronski Feint.' Kyle told Lily, 'And she's pretty good at it.'

'That's nice.' Remus said, smiling at Leah, 'Maybe you should go for tryouts.'

'I fell of the broom and broke my nose last year.' She told him, 'The year before that, I landed on my head. I also once broke my foot, almost my neck, and twice my fingers. Yes, I am pretty good. At getting injured in the attempt to play.'

Peter choked on his toast as he stared at her in amazement, 'A-and you're still not _mental?_ After you fell on your head?_'_

'Head injuries don't always affect the brain.' She told him, 'Didn't you _know _that? It's ninth grade Bio.'

'He's not Muggle.' James said, after finishing laughing at her injury list.

'Who said she's not mental, Peter?' Kyle asked, somberly.

The Marauders laughed, and Angie told Kyle to shut up.

'Come on, let's not have a fight right now.' Alice said, seeing Leah's lips forming a thin, severe line, and sensing her irritation, 'No more cracking jokes at each other's expense.'

Leah finished the last bit of toast and waited for the other girls to finish. She would ignore Kyle no matter _what._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The library was almost empty, and Leah liked it that way. When Kyle or the Marauders were around, it meant groups of giggling, flirting girls. And boy did Kyle, James and Sirius encourage them... But today, all those girls were outside on the Quidditch grounds, sitting in the sidelines, cheering for their crushes.

She opened her notebook to copy down some facts on the witch-burnings in the 13th centuries and it burst into song.

The stupid thing started _singing _in the middle of the library. It was KYLE braying a sorry song.

She slammed her notebook shut, going red as the only other person at the table glared at her. It was a boy. She'd seen him around. James and Sirius called him Snivellus. He had dark greasy hair and a hooked nose and pale skin.

'_What_?' she asked, with a _why-are-you-staring_ look, 'It's just a sorry song.'

He shrugged, 'From whom?'

'My twin.'

'Oh.'

Leah turned back to her book. Kyle had never been nice enough to send her a sorry song… maybe a few squished, expired chocolate bars, or a piece of paper with 'Listen, I'm sorry- K' scribbled on it with a pen which barely worked (Kyle had tons of those).

'You spend your time with the Marauders, don't you?' the boy asked.

'No. My twin does.'

The boy looked back into the heavy book on Dark Arts, 'I see.'

Leah frowned at him, 'Are you trying to tell me something? Then stop beating around the bush.'

'Your brother should find some other friends.' He said.

Leah raised an eyebrow, 'And you are…?'

'Severus. Severus Snape.'

'Leah Ebony.' She said. Wow. She'd not got tongue-tied throughout this whole conversation… Hogwarts was _actually _helping… 'Why should he find other friends?'

'Trouble follows them wherever they go.'

Leah shrugged. 'Kyle _is_ trouble.'

'That's why he charmed your book to sing apologetic songs to you.' Severus stated dryly.

'It's a small fight.' She replied, her eyes raking over him.

'Why aren't you watching the Quidditch tryouts? You're Gryffindor, aren't you?'

'Because of the small fight. But I think I should forgive him now…' she checked her watch, 'Yeah. I've got time. Nice talking to you, Severus. I'll see you around.'

She put her books back into her back and hurried outside into the Quidditch fields.

The rows were filling up with eager Gryffindors and even girls from other houses. In her hurry to dump her bag on a decent seat, so that she could watch Kyle well, she almost tripped over her robes.

Before her face could say hello to the dirty wooden steps, long fingers had gripped her over the arm and pulled her back on her feet. 'Careful there, Ebony.' A voice said in her ear.

'Black.'

'The one and only. Need a seat?' he asked, grinning easily, and not letting go off her arm yet.

'Yes.'

'Come on. Sit with us. The girls just went off because Brady got gum in her hair.'

'Yeah. Fine. Where?'

'Kyle's not yet tried out. There he is. In the line.'

'I need to meet him first.' She said, and, attempting to shrug his hand of, 'You're not _letting go_.' She wrenched her hand away finally, OK- so he let go, but whatever… Then she repeated that she needed to meet her twin first.

Sirius looked at her, half-amused, 'OK, we're sitting over there.' He nodded towards the top benches. Leah nodded, and hurried off.

'Kyle!' she snarled, 'What were you _thinking_? Charming my notebook to sing in your nasty voice…'

He grinned, 'Does that mean I'm forgiven?'

She nodded reluctantly, 'As if you didn't already figure that out, Kyle! And do the Feint. It'll impress them.'

She hurried off the ground and made her way up to the seats. James grinned and made place for her between him and Remus, who looked kind of ill today.

'Can't wait to see your brother play.' He said.

'Yeah. So far, everyone's played like crap.' Sirius agreed, passing over a bag of chips.

'Where did you get these?' Leah asked, her voice betraying surprise, 'They're Muggle.'

He didn't look her way when he replied, 'That's why I bought tons of them.'

Leah figured he didn't want to talk about it, and so she didn't pursue the matter. She munched chips and watched uninterestedly until it was Kyle's turn.

She squinted so that she could see the snitch fly out from Madame Hooch's hands. Many of the girls around them leant forward in their seats, whispering excitedly as he took off.

Sirius looked worried, 'He's stealing my fan club.'

Leah kept her eyes on her twin. He _was _good at sports. He dodged, swerved, as the other seeker (Hufflepuff had been kind enough to lend theirs) went after him.

'Can he pull the Feint well?' Peter fretted, shifting in his seat with anticipation.

'What's he _doing_?' Leah snarled suddenly, the same time as Sirius and James jumped to their feet. Her twin had started going off in the _other _direction.

'I think he's throwing Weston off track.' Remus said.

'Moony's right!' Sirius said suddenly, as Kyle began to increase his speed. Weston did the same, and suddenly, Kyle spun around and sped off in the other direction as Weston went zooming forward and almost nearly collided with one of the seats.

'He… he's so close.' James said, as Kyle leant forward on his broom.

'There's no way he's going to miss it.' Leah said calmly, and leant back in her seat. She had enough faith in her instincts and her brother's capability. And she was right. In a nanosecond, her twin had captured the snitch.

'He's in.' James said, 'Look at Tomas's face.'

'Is he in?' a voice demanded, and they saw Angie and Alice hurrying up the stairs. Angie was asking one of the third years on the team, who nodded and replied something, pointing to Tomas.

'Sweet!' Angie crowed, joining them.

'Is Marlene OK?' Leah asked Alice.

'Yeah, we took it off with some shampoo and soap and a spell every girl in Hogwarts knows. Almost all of us have had chewing gum spat in our hair by that bum. Peeves is such a pain…'

'Who's Peeves?' Leah asked.

All of them stared at her in astonishment. 'You haven't met him yet?' Remus asked finally.

She rolled her eyes, 'If I had, would I have asked?'

'He's the poltergeist.' Alice said, 'I suppose it's good you haven't met him, though. You're better off if he doesn't know you.'

Kyle caught up with them, beaming, 'I'm in. Tomas said so.'

'That was a good move, there.' Remus told him.

A fourth year ran up to them, and stopped, panting slightly. 'Professor Slughorn sent these invitations…' He handed one to Sirius, James, Remus, Kyle, Leah, Alice, and Angie.

'How come you're invited, Angie?' Leah asked, as they walked off together- the three girls.

'My father work's for the ministry.' Angie said, 'And he's quite important. And Alice's dad is pretty big too.'

It was a coincidence, that that very minute, only moments after they'd finished talking about Peeves, he zoomed down on them.

'LIAR LIAR EBONY!' He shrieked. He swooped down and said in her ear, 'I know your secret!' Leah was barely paying any attention to him right now, so she didn't look up in alarm and plead to him not to tell anyone at that moment, as he'd wanted her to do.

'We'll hex you, Peeves!' Alice and Angie threatened together and he zoomed off, cackling loudly.

Leah checked her watch, 'Oh, shoot. I've got to go- I need to…water Kyle's plant!'

They shrugged and said they'd be in the DADA room.

'We'll tell professor you had to have some tablets!' Angie called, as she ran off.

'Zinc.' Leah breathed, catching her breath, as she opened the door. 'Zinc, are you hungry?'

He let out a dramatic sigh, not even getting up to lick her face.

'Zinc, I'm sorry.' She said, 'Don't be mad…'

He sighed and buried his snout in his paws. Leah took out the dog biscuits and canned ham from her bag, 'I've got your favorite food, Zinc- look. Biscuits with ham! OK, Zinc, what do you want right now?' She asked. He looked at the window. 'Zinc, you _can't _go outside right now. I swear we both will spend all the nights this week together… Like we did back at home during summer! We'll stay in a tent, and sleep together, all wrapped in lots and lots of warm blankets, and we'll drink warm milk first thing in the morning.'

Zinc looked at her.

'Yeah, I promise. How about from tomorrow night? Yeah? Good! So eat up like a good boy and give me a wag…'

He licked her face and started eating the biscuits. Leah kissed him a few times and then left.

She sat down on the stairs and dug through her bag for her notebook. Her eyes fell on the slim roll of parchment. She untied the ribbon and the paper unrolled in her hands.

"Dear Miss. Ebony," it said, in rounded cursive writing, done in golden ink, "It is my pleasure to be meeting Michael and Cassandra's children. You _must _come to the small dinner-party I'm hosting tomorrow, at 7:30, my office. I have enclosed a picture which might interest you and your brother behind this parchment. Please do attend, Professor Horace Slughorn."

Leah frowned and flipped the parchment over.

She stared at it for a while, before gulping. Only a few weeks back, she remembered Kyle asking her if she still remembered what mom had been like. And she hadn't known what to say. They _did _have photographs of their mom, but Leah barely remembered her. The memories she'd had were now blurry and confusing, the smells barely there… And the pictures… oh, Leah _hated _them. She was sick of seeing the same ones over and over again- it kind of proved that she would never see her mom again in _real_. Leah had stopped looking at them three years back because she hated them so much.

They made Kyle weak. And then he'd turn to her for consolation, and she was unable to give him any. That was something that really, really, really maddened her. She'd asked herself so many times what sort of crappy elder sister she was. Maybe two minutes wasn't actually that long, but so _what_? It wasn't fair that she barely ever managed to offer him support. And (OK, she hated admitting this) took so much of his support herself.

She looked at the grainy image. It was a class of students, all sitting near the lake. She could see a woman with dark waves of hair framing her white, stunning face with its warm smile brightening it up.

She groaned and buried her face in her lap, so the tears got soaked up by her robes.

Then she slid the photograph neatly between the pages of her Potion Making book, and decided to give it to Kyle later.

*

On the way to the girls huddled by the lake, she saw Kyle. He was celebrating his success with the Marauders under the oak tree. They were drinking Butterbeer and eating Honeydukes chocolate and were currently in splits over something Sirius had just said.

She hurried over and kicked her twin in the rib with her toe, 'Kyle. Get up, moron. You're robes are getting grass-stained. Idiot…'

'Give him a break, Leah.' James said, 'Here, have some chocolate.'

'I don't want any.' She said. She made sure Kyle got up, then told him he'd have to wash the robes himself if they got dirty, and glided off, declining Sirius's offer to pour her some Butterbeer.

As she continued towards the girls, she saw only one person sitting under one of the treesalone, knees drawn up, and a thick book right under his hooked nose.

Leah, no matter how anti-social, knew how it felt to be a loner- and it wasn't bliss. She knew how it felt to be bullied, and she sympathized with Severus Snape. But right now, she had more important problems.

Like going and yelling at Kyle again, because he obviously didn't give a damn for the poor houselves who'd have to wash his stupid robes. The self-centered pig was lying on his back again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

'A tent?' Kyle said, looking perplexed, '_What d'you need a _tent _for?_'

'I'm going camping with Zinc. At night, near the Whomping Willow. No one goes there at night.'

'Camping? Why?'

'I'm spending quality time with Zinc.' Leah said, and lost her patience, 'So if you're done interrogating me, can you let me continue with my list? If I recall correctly, _you _asked if I needed any help with Zinc.'

'I wish I hadn't...' he said regretfully, 'OK, what else…?'

'Blankets- thick ones. Lots of pillows… I can arrange the food.'

Kyle had no problem with Leah sleeping outside. It was her problem if she caught pneumonia or something. But he did ask if she'd get scared at night.

'With Zinc around?' she said, smiling slightly, 'No way.'

That was true. Leah wouldn't have minded going into Azkaban alone if she had Zinc keeping her company.

They'd been talking in whispers now, being early for dinner.

'What're you talking about?' Sirius asked, flopping down beside Leah. James sat down opposite Kyle, with Peter.

'Nothing much.' Kyle said, 'Where's Remus?'

'Wasn't feeling very well. Madame Promfrey thinks he's got something contagious so he's been put somewhere we can't meet him.' James said.

'Oh. He was looking pretty bad today.' Leah said, because she had a soft spot for Remus. He was one of the nice people.

Kyle nodded, 'Yeah.'

'Well, he's always falling ill- it's a family thing. Sometimes his mum, other times his dad...' Sirius said offhandedly. Kyle and James and Peter were now talking (James had figured that Sirius would like to talk to Leah alone) and Leah tried cutting a piece of extremely hard chicken.

'Here, let me.' Sirius offered, taking the knife and fork from her hand. 'Looks like the chicken's hard on every table. Regulus is having trouble with it, anyway.'

'Who?'

She followed his gaze and her eyes fell on a scowling fourth year Slytherin, struggling with the chicken. 'Ah. He looks a lot like you.' Leah stated, 'Your brother?'

'Unfortunately.' Sirius said, and abruptly changed the topic, piling some meat onto his plate.

Sirius's eyes had hardened, and Leah, not into asking about his personal matters (she had enough problems of her own) dug into her more comforting and less demanding slice of cheese-and-sausage pie.

She began self-evaluation as she bit into the pie.

OK, so she was a bit selfish. She'd always been. She cared more about her own problems or Zinc's problems than anyone else's problems. Big deal! At least she cared enough to evaluate herself and feel a bit guilty for not being more passionate about Sirius's affairs… not that he would tell her even if she _did _show some interest.

Still, for some reason, she felt meaner than usual. Maybe it was because she was so much more human now…So she looked up and was about to force herself to ask why he sounded so weird when he talked about his family. _About _to. Because at that moment, a never-ending stream of chilly liquid fell all over her.

*

'PEEVES!' Angie shrieked, above the sniggers from the other tables, 'You've drenched Leah, you bloody—'

'Miss. Snickers, no foul language.' Professor McGonagall said, storming over, waving her wand threateningly at Peeves, who was cackling in delight.

'He got Black too.' Leah stated calmly to nobody, wiping the juice from her face. She stood and looked at Peeves with disdain. 'You and I will meet at the Owlery before curfew and talk this out.'

With a regal air, she carried herself out of the dining hall. It was amazing, how she managed to look so calm and stately even when soaked in orange juice, shivering, and sticky.

Peeves stared at her, open-mouthed and looking very stupid. No matter what he'd expected, he'd not expected _that._

Leah went up to her room, got her pajamas- no point in wearing school robes again when there was only an hour left for bed- and made her way downstairs.

The juice had been cold, and now she had a slight pain in her chest.

Fortunately, she didn't come across anyone on her way to the girls' washroom, so no one befell her wrath. She had just discovered little pink boils erupting all over her, thanks to her allergy to having orange juice being chucked all over her. Or that was what idiots like Kyle would think. Leah was about as allergic to orange juice as she was to Zinc. Obviously that nasty poltergeist had mixed something in it.

She went into the bathrooms- Hogwarts toilets were very nicely made. Especially the ones where you had a bath. They were a long row of cubicles, and three of these had sufficient bathtubs. Since it was evening, and everyone else was at dinner, Leah chose a cubicle with a bathtub and turned the taps. Warm water gushed into it and soon she'd stripped and climbed into strawberry scented water.

The boils slowly faded with each layer of soap she put on them. Only a few remained on her hands, which seemed to be the victim in every situation.

First crushed glass, and now boils...

Then she shampooed her hair, scrubbed the sticky parts and lay in warm water, sighing contentedly.

'Hey, Leah.' A voice said from outside. There was a knock.

'It's us.' Lily's voice said, 'Are you in there? Sirius came out in boils. We came to help in case you have too.'

'Mine have almost gone.' She called, 'Thanks, though.'

'We'll wait out here.' Alice said sweetly, 'Frank just gave me this lovely box of chocolates his parents got from Russia. I can't wait to share with you guys!'

'I can't wait for you to share them with us either.' Angie replied frankly. Leah giggled a little (She _GIGGLED_! The _shame_…) and Marlene sighed about how she'd love it if _her _boyfriend was half as caring as Frank Longbottom.

Alice slid the box in under the door and Leah chose a chocolate. It was one of her favorite kinds- Russian chocolates. This Frank guy had taste; she had to give Alice that.

So she was content- her first human friends were outside, chattering, she had a lovely chocolate in her hand and nice-smelling warm water around her. What more could a girl want?

Of course, it would be better if she had Sirius Black and a thousand other problems off her back. _Then _she could properly say, "What more could a girl want?"  
Until then, she'd be content with lying in steaming water with a chocolate in her mouth and the fact that she had giggled naturally for the first time in her life.

'Leah, what're you doing in there?!' Angie finally shrieked, losing patience. 'You've got a meeting with Peeves and you're just sitting in there, probably dreaming about Siri-'

'I don't think Leah likes Sirius.' Marlene said loyally, 'It's _he _who seems head over heels in love with her and boy, is she winning him over with that cool attitude of-'

'I can HEAR you.' Leah muttered, loud enough for them to hear, as she stepped out of the water and dried herself.

Then she pulled on her pajamas, which were grey and plain and warm and stepped outside, rubbing her scalp with the towel.

'Need help with drying that?' Alice asked, 'It's very cold.'

Leah nodded gratefully and sat down on the stone bench beside Alice, who took out her wand and started airing out Leah's hair, while Angie told her to keep her wand ready ("Because Peeves is positively EVIL and unpredictable, and for all you know, you might come out of the encounter in the shape of a chicken or something…").

It was fifteen minutes to the assigned time. Leah wrapped a dark blue dressing gown of hers over her in the common room and walked outside, up to the Owlery.

To shut Peeves up, she had realized there were only two ways- befriend him or threaten him. She'd start with the easier method- threatening. If he turned up, that was.

The Owlery was cold, and Leah wondered why she'd been stupid enough to ask to meet a ghost up here. Oh, now she remembered. No one would hear them here. To her surprise, Peeves was there, giggling at the sight of her.

'I am here like you asked, ah!' he said dramatically, swooping up towards the ceiling. 'Thought I wouldn't come, didn't you?'

'It did cross my mind.' She said, 'Now, Peeves, we'll discuss this calmly and like the intellectuals we really are.'

She said it respectfully (even if she didn't have any respect for the ghost who'd poured acidic orange juice over her) and Peeves was a bit baffled, though he hid it well.

He replied by saying, 'I know your secret, you liar! Can't wait to see the look on Professor McGonagall! She'll have a fit!'

'Which secret?' Leah asked sharply.

'The ugly brute you're hiding, of course.' He said evilly, 'Thought I'd spotted you snogging Sirius Black, eh? Not that you have. You're far too ugly.'

'Zinc isn't an ugly brute.' Leah spat, forgetting to be civil, 'You haven't even _met _him yet. He's a very nice person-'-Another hoot from that despicable creature before her- 'and you'd better not say a word about him.'

'Or what?'

'Aren't you a prankster? One of the best prankster Hogwarts has ever had, I've heard.' Leah said, laying the compliments out neatly, 'And here I've hidden a dog with me, breaking one of the important rules at Hogwarts. Shouldn't you be _pleased_? Rather than snitching on me.'

Peeves contemplated it. 'I should, I suppose. And yep, I am THE best prankster Hogwarts has ever had. Showed the Marauders some secret places myself, I did.' He nodded proudly and then looked at her again, 'I especially like dung bombs.'

'You'll have as many as you like. But you can't tell anyone, Peeves. I've put a spell on you. You tell the truth, and my spell will send you through the toilet seat, straight into the lake.'

Peeves shuddered, 'I hate the lake.' He whined, 'The squid hates me! He-'

'I don't give a damn.' Leah informed him, and he whined again, but then cheered up when she told him she'd have a box of dungbombs ready for him in a week.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

'Don't.'

The one word was more effective than whacking Sirius with a book like James would have done.

It was Potions, and Sirius was in a slightly… _hyper _mood. Leah had stayed silent for more than long, but Sirius grinning and waving a bowl of dragon blood precariously over her carefully brewed potion stirred her into action.

Of course, she hadn't just said "don't" normally. She'd said it disdainfully, and given him a weird look.

'I was just fooling around.' He said hastily, and kept the bowl down. 'What d'you keep writing in that book of yours?'

'Nothing.' She replied curtly.

His shapely eyebrows arched themselves in mock surprise.

'Nothing I can discuss with you.' She corrected, putting the book safely in her back.

'Not very advanced in the diplomatic field, are you?' It sounded like he didn't expect an answer, and so Leah didn't answer.

Sirius turned to his potion- it was individual today, and he had produced a puke-colored THING instead of the correct periwinkle blue tranquilizing potion.

He wasn't bad at potions- he could make his _own_ potions- like the tentacle-spouting one he'd made and dumped into Snivelly's morning pumpkin juice last year… But he was moody, too, and his potion-making went with his _mood_.

Scowling, and not in the _mood_ to follow the stupid book which HAD NOT HELPED AT ALL, he dumped the dragon blood into the potion.

There was a resounding bang and Sirius fell back, coughing.

Leah jumped out of her seat in shock and let her eyes flick from Sirius's face to the potion which was now hissing feebly.

'_What_? Are you going to help or just gloat?' he asked finally, 'My potions turned…' He shuddered, instead of finding a describing word.

Leah raised her eyebrows at him, but leant over his bowl, covering her nose. 'It can be mended.' She said, 'Dragons blood? That's what you so stupidly put in.' It was a statement, and not a question.

He didn't take offense to the "so stupidly" part.

'Yeah. Now what?'

'Go get me the antidote to Dragon's blood.' She said calmly, stirring it a bit. 'Stop standing there and- oh. You don't know what it is.'

'I've forgotten.' He said casually.

'It's dog's blood.' She said.

Sirius shivered, 'No wonder.'

Leah waited. He moved away, and returned with a small vial.

'Now you put it in. Only three drops…' She directed, 'Stop making faces.'

'I thought you had a dog yourself.' He said darkly.

She pursed her lips up, 'It's not his blood, is it?'

'Could be.'

Leah went pale, and though she knew that it couldn't be _Zinc's _blood, she wondered if the blood had belonged to some OTHER unfortunate kid's pet dog. She wiped her brow, 'Don't…'

Sirius softened, seeing she was looking worried. 'I was just yanking your wand.' He dropped the blood into the potion, 'Now what?'

She checked the book, 'You forgot the fourth instruction. One Phoenix feather, dipped lightly and then taken out, followed by a toad's tongue.'

Within moments, his potion was back on the right track.

'Nice.' Sirius muttered, carrying out the last instruction. He grinned, and leant back, 'Rest at last.'

Only, she'd ALREADY turned back to that thieving, stealing notebook of hers. Seriously. That book had to be cursed. It kept drawing her attention away from him.

He held up his potion's notebook, and flipped through it, uninterestedly. Something slid out of the pages and fell on his lap. Frowning, he reached out. This picture wasn't his… He looked at the name on the book. This _book _wasn't his.

'Here. This fell out of your book.' He said, tapping Leah on the shoulder.

She looked up, slightly annoyed. 'What-?'

'I thought your book was mine… this fell out of it.'

Leah looked at the picture, and then snatched it out of his hand.

'Who's that?'

'My mother.' She replied, stuffing it into her bag. Then she snapped, 'Why do you ask so many _questions_?'

Sirius looked at her for a few seconds and then replied, 'You don't talk otherwise.'

Leah opened her mouth, and shut it again, at a loss of words. No one usually answered her when she snapped at them. Finally, she managed, 'Well, yeah.' For the sake of proving him wrong.

'See?! _Well, yeah_ barely let's people continue decent conversation.'

Leah looked at him.

He had two legs, two hands, no snout, no fluffy tail or paws. Clearly human. So why did she keep thinking of dogs when she saw him? OK, his laugh was very bark-like… and those eyes were… weird- they were warm sometimes, cold and rock-like others... And even his teeth were nice and sharp, but not DOG like…

'What? Do I have something on my face?' Sirius asked, and added, as innocently as the Hogwarts Casanova could, 'Could you get off for me?'

He did have something on his face. A stain from the miniature explosion of his potion. Leah said, 'It's up here.' She pointed at her own face.

Sirius missed purposely (Leah didn't know that. She just thought he was stupid and couldn't follow simple signs).

'Could you? Here… use this.' He said, handing her a tissue. Reluctantly, Leah reached out with the tissue and dabbed at where it was. (Under his right eye)

She averted her gaze the whole time. She wasn't going to let her stupid stomach go flying around like it had turned into the tooth fairy or something.

She dabbed a little harder, and then sat back, crumpling and chucking the tissue away, so that it hit James on his head.

The victim spun around and looked accusingly at the direction from which the tissue had flown, and then saw Leah's apologetic face and the anger faded.

'Accident.' She muttered quickly and checked her watch, 'Oh, the period just got over. Could you clear my cauldron out too, Black?' She didn't wait for a reply as she snatched up her bag and pushed past him, 'Don't mess up!' she called, and hurried out of the room.

*

Leah had her schedule planned- At exactly six, after tea, she was to go down and put up the tent, remind Zinc that she'd pick him up at ten, and then get ready for the stupid sit-around-a-table-chatting party.

Not that she had anything against sitting around a table, chatting, but it was easier when it was only Ian and Kyle.

It was tea now, and Leah was sipping hot coffee, and selecting a biscuit from one of the many golden plates.

'I can't wait for the party!' Angie was gushing, 'the food's very nice- not to mention I've got a _date._ Kyle asked me, you know… Leah, your twin's really sweet sometimes.'

'To others.' Leah pointed out, biting into a fat sugary biscuit. Jam gushed into her mouth… yum.

'He's sweet to you too.' Angie said, 'I mean, today when we were sitting at the lake, he walked all the way over to us to give you his _jacket _because it was cold and he SAW YOU SHIVERING. But whatever… I'm just so happy one of my best friends can tell me all about my date!'

'I don't think Leah wants to.' Lily laughed.

Leah nodded.

'Hasn't James asked you, Lils?' Marlene demanded.

'Even if he did, I'd never go with that _jerk._' Lily snapped, 'I'd rather _die._'

'She caught him and Sirius hexing Severus Snape again.' Alice whispered to Leah, 'But she couldn't do anything. She's supposed to be in a fight with Snape.'

Leah had learnt that Lily and Snape used to be childhood friends, until he called her a Mudblood last year. And meant it.

'Did Sirius ask you?' Angie demanded, looking at Leah, 'You should have seen his _face _when you were wiping it in Potions…' She trailed off, seeing Leah staring at her. The biscuit had stopped halfway to Leah's mouth, and her eyes were blinking at Angie blankly.

'There was a stain.' She said defensively, 'And it was under his right eye.'

Angie stifled a giggle, and Alice looked at her warningly.

'Anyway,' Marlene said, changing the subject, 'what're you wearing to the party, guys? I'm wearing that maroon one-'

'Oooh! My favorite- the velvet, you mean?' Alice asked, 'It looks gorgeous on you, Marlene. Your neckcan really carry it off.'

They actually knew what kind of necks could carry it off. Leah, thought, vaguely. Not that her own dress sense was bad… it was pretty good. After all, she was an author who had to make a lot of public appearances.

'And Lily's wearing that emerald one which goes with her eyes. Aren't you, Lily?' Angie asked, 'I'm wearing my ashes-of-rose pink one- Leah, what about you?'

'I laid it out on my bed.'

Marlene drew a horrified breath. '_That_? Leah, the color combination is amazing- but this is a PARTY. Not a… a get-together. There _will _be _some _partying and _boys_.'

Leah shrugged, 'I don't care. I'm not going to be partying or whatever-ing boys.'

Marlene widened her baby blue eyes, and stuck out her lower lip, 'Leah… can I _please _root through your clothes and chose something else?'

Leah looked at Marlene's face, and then the slight but perfect makeup, the neat, pretty hairdo… and that puppy-dog look. She had full faith in Marlene's fashion choice and there was no way she could say no when her friend was looking at her like that.

'OK.' She breathed finally, 'Do what you want. Just…'

'Consider you?' Angie said, 'You can totally trust Marlene, Leah. She'd never choose something ridiculous… like that golden silk one in your cupboard.'

Leah nodded. She didn't really care.

She'd just found one of Zinc's favorite biscuits in the pile. She waved a hand dismissively, and when she was sure the girls were distracted, she leant over and rooted through the cookies until she'd found a handful of Zinc's biscuits. Then she stuffed them into a napkin and into her pocket.

Downing the remaining coffee, she crammed some mints into her mouth and got up. 'I think I'll go take a walk before the party.' She said and hurried outside. She'd put the tent in the empty place not far from the Willow. The tent and the pillows and blankets. They were exactly where she'd left them.

Within a matter of seconds, she'd put the tent up (using her wand) and arranged the pillows and blankets cozily inside it. An Invisibility spell completed her task. There. She was all set.

Smiling, she looked up at the setting sun. Then she hurried back upstairs.

She almost had a coronary when she found Sirius Black shoving at Zinc's door, to no avail.

'What… what're you doing?' she asked, when he noticed her and said hi in disgruntled tones.

'I wanted to dump my broom in here.' He said, 'But it's jammedor something…'

'I know it is.' She said, 'I've tried too. There's another cupboard…' THINK, LEAH. WHERE IS THERE _ANOTHER _CUPBOARD? She vaguely remembered dumping her muddy boots in there one time. 'Down the corridor. Turn right.'

Sirius had regained his composure by now. He smiled beguilingly at her, 'I'll see you at the party. Until then, thanks.' He doffed an imaginary hat and went down the corridor. Leah waited till he'd turned the corner. Then she muttered the password and flung the door open. Zinc pounced on her.

He'd obviously been scratching at the door when he'd heard Sirius pull and push and kick.

Thank god she'd put a spell on the door so that SIRIUS couldn't hear or feel anything.

'Phew, Zinc. Close shave.'

Zinc looked at her.

'No, I don't think Black is meant to find out about you. God, _why _do you adore him so much?' She asked, 'its just coincidence that… that he keeps knocking at our secret's door.'

Zinc sighed, as if to say, _it's sad. You're not half as romantic as Kyle._

'I should think not.' Leah sniffed, 'Here. Your biscuits.'

Zinc nuzzled her lovingly, and scoffed down biscuits. Leah nuzzled him back and then poked her head out to make sure the coast was clear. It was. Relieved, she hurried outside and back into the common room.

*

The dress Marlene had chosen was a dark blue silk one with a ruffled skirt, with glossy net (in the ruffles of the skirt) and a tight bodice. She'd thrown in a dark, intricately knitted shawl for effect, and a skinny shiny bracelet with tiny black beads. Alice had donated that one- the bracelet.

'Like your outfit?' Marlene asked, 'Well, go put it on even if you don't. You barely have any time- you're hot and sweaty and-'

'Oh, just go have a wash, Leah.' Lily interrupted. She looked very pretty in the dark green gown of hers. Leah did so. When she came out, Marlene and Angie literally snatched her head in order to put her hair "right".

Once they finally let go, she put on the dark blue slippers and threw the shawl over her shoulders. She barely threw her reflection a second's glance, but Angie held her in front of it to take a good look.

She looked the same as ever- dark hair, unsmiling mouth, and steely dark eyes. But when Angie planted a big kiss on her forehead and said, 'I'd rather go out on a date with you, hon.' in a deep, masculine voice,

Leah laughed, and then she realized that people were actually right when they said she looked nicer when she smiled. Suddenly, the icy surface melted, and the eyes turned warm and chocolaty, but did not lose their intensity…and it was a very interesting transformation, actually. One that she could describe sometime in a book… She snatched said book out and started scribbling it down at once.

The transformation disappeared.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Slughorn's office had been magically enlarged. It was the size of the Gryffindor common room now, and along the sides, there were tables with food and drinks. In the centre, it was cozy and warm- a large circle of carpets, cushions, sofas, and armchairs. Trays with snacks floated around and right now, Leah snatched a small chicken sandwich off one, to keep her company, and finished it in three bites.

She was feeling very lost- Lily had been confronted by James and a large bouquet, Angie and Kyle had just entered and Kyle was making Angie laugh, and Leah felt a tiny pang of jealousy- partly because her friend had been stolen for the time being and partly because it was _her _twin who'd stolen her.

Marlene and Alice had been taken away by their boyfriends from the Seventh Year ("And I'll be borrowing Alice/Marlene here. I hope you don't mind!") Well, Leah _did _mind. But there was no way on earth that she was going to say that and ruin this for Alice or Marlene.

So here she was.

Alone, because of her many sacrifices.

She wished the ground would open up, and send her straight to Zinc through some tunnel or something. It didn't, of course.

She stopped a tray and looked curiously at the slimy balls wrapped in a dark paper on it. A small bowl of dark dip was also on the tray.

'I-cough- wouldn't try that if- COUGH- I were-COUGH-you!'

Funny how Sirius Black always managed to find her.

Leah dipped a finger in the dip and sniffed it. It was vile. She snatched up a tissue, wiped her finger and sent the tray going again.

'Water?' she asked Sirius, because her throat was already burning, even with only a lick of that horrible substance.

'Already had some… I'm better now.' He said, and then flashed her one of his best smiles, 'Did I mention how amazing you look?' When he didn't get a satisfactory reply, he continued, 'That's a compliment.'

She shrugged, 'Thank you.' Then it came to her that she should compliment him back, so she forced herself to say, 'you don't look bad yourself. But I've already seen Kyle, so I'm immune to surprises.'

'Here, Leah!' a voice called, and sweet-smelling flowers were chucked in her face. Sneezing, she caught the stem before the bouquet fell, clasping her hands over it. The flowers were bright yellow, and it was her stupid twin who'd so unceremoniously thrown them in her face.

Still. He deserved some thanks. Even if the flowers didn't go with her dress.

'Oh, thanks, Kyle.' She said, smiling slightly. Of _course _Kyle would never forget her. He always remembered her.

He came over now, 'Sorry, sis- it's not for you. I wanted you to turn them pink- to go with Angie's dress.' He plucked a slightly squashed rose out of Sirius's robe pocket, 'Here. You can keep this one.'

Leah threw it at his face, and snapped, 'Get someone else to do your bouquet, Kyle!' Then she chucked the bouquet at him too and he groaned and hurried over to find someone else to get it done.

OK. Now why was she almost crying?

It was just KYLE for god's sake. It didn't MATTER that she'd not crossed his mind this once.

Cursing herself silently, she plucked a small cake off a tray so that Sirius wouldn't see her wet eyes. But Sirius wasn't as thick as she'd figured he was. He'd already realized.

'Hey,' he said, in the same voice _she _used to talk to _Zinc _when he had got a shock or something, 'Kyle was just kidding around-'

'I know.' she said, making her voice calm, 'Do I look like I'm crying? It happens when pollen gets into your eye-'

Sirius turned his back to her, and then quickly spun back around. He was holding a large bouquet of dark blue flowers in his hand. 'Forgot all about these. Good thing Kyle reminded me.' He said, and presented them to her.

Leah stared at the flowers. Oh, right. Real funny. Give the silly crying twin a bunch of flowers you conjured out of thin air just to please her because her brother crushed her by being the GIT he was.

That was what she thought in the beginning. But the smile was starting to fade from Sirius's face as if he was afraid she wouldn't accept it.

A small smile graced her sullen lips and she took it. 'Thanks. How did you know which color-?'

'I asked Brady.' He shrugged, 'Here. I'll hold them if you want-' She dumped them into his arms at once and he barked with laughter and followed her.

'What's so funny?' she asked uncomprehendingly, distracted by another tray which held some evil-looking multi-colored jelly, 'I'm getting a drink.'

'Hey, Leah.' Lily said, catching up with her. James was close behind her, smiling. Lily was holding a bunch of red flowers, looking mollified. 'Those flowers are beautiful- who gave them to you-?'

'I did.' Sirius said, almost proudly.

Lily blinked at him and then smiled at Leah again, 'They go with your dress.'

Leah blinked too. 'Lily, that's a very nice bouquet you're holding… ' She looked at James, who winked at her cheerfully, 'I was getting a drink. I'll see you-'

'Hey, I want one too.' James said, 'And Padfoot and I spiked a few of them. I'll need to give you a safe one.' Leah shrugged and went away with him. Lily waited until she was gone, and then turned to address Sirius.

'Look, Sirius, I don't need to stick up for Leah- she can hex your brain out if she wants- but I'm warning you- Leah's gotten a long way since we've met her, and I'm not going to let you change her back into an anti-social freak.'

Sirius looked at her with slight annoyance, 'And how am I supposed to do that? I'm not the bad guy. Stop interfering.'

'Leave her unless you're serious about it.' Lily said calmly, 'That's all.'

'Here, Lily- you like Butterbeer, don't you?' James called, coming back. Leah had two glasses in her hands too. She handed one to Sirius, 'James thought you might want one.'

'He's right.' He said, tucking the bouquet under his arm, 'Why aren't you having Butterbeer? What _is _that? _Strawberry 'delight'?'_

'I have to stay up late. Butterbeer makes me sleepy.'

'Let's get a seat, shall we?' Lily asked, pointing with her bunch of flowers, 'Look- Angie and Kyle are going over to sit, too.'

Within moments, they were sitting in one part of the circle of seats. Leah had mooched up on a small sofa with Lily and some pillows. Sirius was right beside her, on a separate couch with James.

'Ebony!' one of the Ravenclaws called. Leah looked up, but he was referring to Kyle. 'Saw you on the broom today evening. You've got us quaking in our shoes.'

'Yeah, he's good, isn't he?' James asked, 'Much better than you, Notting.'

Notting grinned and didn't take any offense.

That was the beginning- within minutes, everyone was conversing. Slughorn occasionally joined in, asking questions about someone's family or the other.

He finally stopped at Leah, who wasn't looking forward to the occasion.

'Leah, m'dear!' he said easily, beaming at her from his chair in the centre, 'You and Lily have worked miracles in the Potions room.'

'Our mother was a certified potion-maker, professor.' She said. She'd been to many interviews before and knew how to reply.

'And that book of yours! Ah, very satisfactory, I must say.' Slughorn continued, 'Of course, Severus here is extremely talented at Potions too- one of my best students- along with you and Lily-' He turned his attention to Snape.

'Hopefully he'll miss me.' Sirius said quietly to no one in particular. But that wasn't about to happen. Sirius Black was one of the most popular guys in school. No _way _was Slughorn going to miss him.

'And Sirius! Chats with you are always very lively.' Slughorn said, leaning forward intently, 'How is old Orion?'

'Father's fine, thank you.' Sirius said, through almost-gritted teeth.

'So Regulus told me.' Slughorn said, 'Both you brothers give me a run for my money, I must say. I still treasure that extremely interesting antidote to boils you made the other day.'

Leah looked across at Regulus Black. He was smaller than Sirius, with a grimmer expression and a thinner mouth. His nose was slightly wrinkled, like he smelt something bad. He was surrounded by friends… But all in all, he was basically just a kid. She was distracted from her thoughts by a squeak, and then another squeak, and then gasps.

Looking up, she saw people shrieking and clutching their faces, which had sprouted whiskers and a twitchy mousey nose.

The two Marauders in the room secretly grinned at each other and the third person who'd helped them out.

Ah. The spiked drinks had worked.

*

Leah had worked on her bolster. Now, it would look exactly like her- asleep. No one would smell a rat. Or mouse, for that matter: the party had been a disaster after the prank had worked. She had a feeling Kyle was involved in it, too. She'd seen Black shoot him a secret grin. The evil, happy one.

She waited until the others were asleep, and climbed out of bed and activated the spell. Almost instantly, the bolster grew hands, legs, a neck… Hair sprouted from the head, and it was a living, breathing dummy of her.

She threw the blanket over the dummy, and a jacket and negligee over herself, and slipped outside with her backpack- it contained a flask of milk, Zinc's dinner, a blanket and a hot-water bottle. Silently, she tiptoed down the stairs and into the common room. It was empty, except for a third year boy snoring on the couch. His History of Magic textbook was open on his face.

The fat lady grumbled at Leah for a while, but Leah told her she looked beautiful even when she didn't have enough sleep, and that flattered her. She fell asleep again.

Zinc was quivering with excitement when Leah opened the door. She clipped his leash on his collar and they went out silently. It was cold- very much so, and Leah wrapped Zinc's blanket around him tightly when they climbed into the ten and also took off the leash.

She then waved her wand and muttered a spell. The tent warmed up almost instantly. Zinc hogged up his dinner, even offering her some, but she declined politely, and instead ate a chocolate bar.

'Zinc, y'know, Kyle's a nasty ditcher. He _forgot _me today. Idiot…'

Zinc agreed at once, while curling up beside her under the blankets.

'And he actually had the nerve to ask me to change the flowers.'

Another understanding nod. Zinc licked her hand slightly, and she laughed softly. 'It's my entire fault- you being locked up all day… I'm so sorry, Zinc.'

They conversed in this way for a while, and then she wrapped her arms around him and fell asleep in his warmth. Zinc slept too, but he was awakened by a suspicious noise. It was a voice saying something in hushed tones, a bark, then silence, and then laughter.

He nudged Leah's arms away gently, and stepped out of the tent. It was four people, all laughing softly. All male. In fact, one of them was the boy who Zinc _knew _had a doggy-side to him. What did Leah call him? Serious or something… oh well, he'd remember it later.

Basically, the coast was clear and it wasn't an insane serial killer. Sighing, Zinc went back into the tent, pulled the flap back with his teeth, and curled up beside Leah again.

Leah slept until late into the night, when some stirring awoke her. It was only an owl outside, hooting freakishly. She tried to sleep again, but found it near impossible. When she did fall asleep again, it was a troubled one, with a nasty dream- McGonagall had discovered her and Zinc in the tent and she was sending Zinc back, away… away…

*

At six in the morning, Leah put Zinc back into his room, dissembled the tent, and went to her dorm, yawning. The bolster turned back into a bolster as she climbed into bed, and curled up… ah… peaceful sleep at last…

'LEAH! LEAH! Wake up, will you?! It's _late._'

She was being shaken really hard. Disgruntled, she sat up, wiping sleep out of her eyes.

'Lemme sleep, Nan…'

'Who's Nan?' Angie demanded, 'Whatever, Leah. We're all ready. But you're still in your _jammies._'

Leah looked at her, startled. It was true- Lily and Alice had already left. Marlene was braiding her hair with the utmost care, in front of her mirror.

Leah scrambled out of bed, and stripped in the small washroom. She brushed hurriedly, splashed water on her face and dashed outside.

'I'm coming,Ange!' She called, and fled down the stairs after her friends.

'Oooh, Leah!' Angie groaned, looking at her as they stepped out of the common room.

'What?' she asked, trying not to let her irritation show.

'You're hair! Your eyes! Didn't you a) comb your hair or b) sleep last night?' Marlene inquired, 'Oh, well. Forget it. I'm so hungry…'

Leah shook her head, and followed them, slowly. Her legs seemed reluctant to do as they were told, and she couldn't stop yawning.

'Whoa, whoa, sis.' Kyle said when she bumped into him. Gee, that was _his _fault to begin with! He was entering and she was leaving… Who told him to ENTER WHEN EVERYONE ELSE WAS _LEAVING_?

'Where're you going?' she snapped, 'It's time for breakfast.'

'Just forgot a book.' He said, before looking her up and down, 'Didn't you-'

'No, I didn't comb my hair _or _sleep!' she snarled, 'Everyone's telling me.'

'Didn't you get out of the right side of bed today? I was going to say that.' He said, 'But forget it- you come with me, one sec- we need to _talk.'_

'OK, we'll see you at the breakfast table, Leah.' Angie said, and she and Marlene climbed outside the portrait.

'What?' she asked, jadedly and followed her twin, before halting suddenly, 'Kyle, that's the _boys _dorm-'

'So? Jacob told me girls can enter the boys' dorm- his older sister comes up every night to yell at him- but boys can't.'

'Boys can't enter the boys' dorms?' Leah said, confused. She _was _very sleepy… she could barely make sense of what Kyle was saying.

Kyle laughed and directed her up the stairs, 'Leah, I don't think your camping trip is a good idea. That was a stupidquestion and you don't ask stupid questions. Boys can't enter the _girls' _dorms.'

They were now in a long corridor, identical to the girl's one, with doors all along it.

'Do you have a _clean _hairbrush?' she asked, 'I forgot to comb my hair.'

'Um, yeah… I think I do have a spare…' her twin said, pushing open one of the doors in the long corridor. The boys had a room almost exactly like the girls, but of course, it was dirtier. Every inch of it was covered in clothes, shoes, socks, books, loose parchment, and chocolate wrappers… even some thousand bouquets from last night addressed to either Sirius, James or Kyle.

'When Remus is here, that bed is usually neat.' Kyle said, pointing at one of the centre beds, which was completely covered in the flowers the Marauders had received. He opened the mahogany trunk at the end of a bed near a window- his bed- and rooted in, before producing a hairbrush.

'You mean he hasn't been back since yesterday?' Leah asked.

'Nope, not once.' Kyle shrugged, 'And that's what I wanted to talk to you about.'

The brush hit her on her nose as he chucked it at her, and she gasped, wiping her watery eyes. Scowling, she sat down on one of the beds in front of a mirror, and ran the comb through her hair. It _did _look messed up… 'Yes, what?' she asked finally.

Kyle sat down opposite her, and stretched out his long, uniform-clad legs. 'The guys… they've been acting very weird lately.'

'Oh.' Leah examined her stinging nose, seemingly uninterested in this conversation- she could _not _offer any friend-help to _Kyle…_ She was clueless if they were "acting weird lately".

'No, I mean, Leah, the night before yesterday, I woke up to get a glass of water.' He paused, dramatically, 'And _none of the Marauders were here_! Remus, I know, had excused himself before we went to bed- but the other three weren't there either.'

'So…?'

'Well, it didn't bother me until I figured that they have some sort of secret- they keep falling silent when anyone else- including me- approaches. Not that I mind- they've always been kind of secretive- but this one… they're practically panicking.'

'Find some better friends.' Leah said, frowning, 'If they're too high-and-mighty to include you, Kyle-'

Her twin laughed, 'Breathe, Leah. That doesn't bother me- and they do try their best to include me in almost every other thing-like yesterday's prank- but… well, today I awoke at night again- and their beds were empty. And I doubt any of them practice Quidditch at an hour past midnight. And so I fell asleep again- you know, half-asleep half-awake kind of thing…'

Leah nodded, and sprawled out on the bed, yawning.

'So I could see the room through half-lidded eyes. And then, suddenly, the three of them _were in the room._ And I didn't even see them come in. They'd been using a cloak. I swear on anything, they were using an invisibility cloak.'

'Maybe they went sneaking into the infirmary to meet Remus.' Leah offered, staring up at the curtains on the bed.

'That's what I thought, too. Until I saw that.'

'Saw what?'

'That.' He said, pointing at the floor. Leah looked too, and saw "that". It was barely visible at first on the red carpet, but then she started to make out muddy… paw-prints. _Dog's _paw-prints! She flopped back on the bed, and pressed her fingers to her temples, all the while staring at the prints.

They were of a pretty big dog's- maybe even the same size as Zinc… well, the paws were, anyway. And Zinc still had a lot to grow- his paws were huge… Leah loved them- they were soft and velvety and warm when she held them- She shook her head to stop her mind from wandering, and turned her eyes to the canopy hanging over the bed.

'I don't understand.' She said, finally, 'Do you think… do you think _they're _hiding a dog too?'

Kyle had obviously considered that. He shook his head, 'No… it doesn't fit, somehow. Maybe they transfigured something-'

'Who? Remus? The same Remus who hasn't been in this room since a day?' Leah questioned him, 'Because none of the others are amazing at transfiguration. They can't even turn a rat turn into a _stuffed_ rat.'

'And I didn't hear anything, either.' Kyle went on, now rooting through his clothes, probably searching for his book.

Leah yawned softly, and was about to say that he never heard anything when he was asleep anyway, when the door flew open and Sirius entered, saying, 'He's not getting suspicious, Wormy-'

And then he stopped, abruptly, leaving the sentence hanging in midair.

James crashed into him, and cursed. 'What, Padfoot- It's just Kyle- _oh hey, _Leah!'

For once, she seemed to be unable to hide the color which was creeping traitorously into her cheeks. She had sprung out of the bed when Sirius had entered, and was now trying to gain her composure. But it seemed kind of difficult… with Sirius _staring _like that.

'No, it's perfectly alright.' Sirius said, getting over his surprise (and glee), 'That's my bed- make yourself comfortable.'

That was not the right thing to say.

A thousand thoughts rushed into Leah's head, so quickly, it almost made her queasy.

In all the romantic movies she'd watched, the fangirls _always, always _snuck into the guy's room and fell onto his bed, thinking… _things._

But she had no clue it was his bed before he told her. She'd just randomly picked it… But how was he supposed to know that? And she hadn't been thinking things.

'Oh, hey guys.' Kyle said casually, 'Leah came up to help me find something. She's absolutely wasted, so she crashed out. Right, Leah?'

Leah nodded sharply, and finally, she managed to think clearly again.

'The room's normally clean when Mooney's around.' James was saying now, 'Sorry- don't worry. The next time you come-'

'I won't.' she managed to say bluntly, 'I just came to help Kyle find something. Like he said. Have you got it?'

Kyle nodded, and dropped the book into his bag.

'See you around!' Sirius and James called, as they strode outside, and Leah slammed the door shut behind her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

The water was cold against her skin, and it was going to make its way sneakily down Leah's neck before she patted her face dry with her sleeve.

She stared at herself in the mirror above the sink and reflected (rather uninterestedly) on her actions. She'd got sent out of Divination to wash her face because she'd fallen asleep while trying to figure out what the puddle in her tea cup meant.

Unlike the rest of her classmates, Leah didn't think Divination was a bunch of fluff. But today was different. She was so sleepy she could barely see straight. And Alfalfa (Yep, her Divination teacher was named after a _plant_) had sent her out to wash her face and "Come back when she felt she was awake enough". And she didn't feel she was "awake enough".

So she flung the bag over her shoulder and stepped out of the girls' washroom. The corridor was empty, and outside, there was no noise- the fields were silent, still, because the students were confined to their classrooms. The mountains rose majestically in the distance, and the sky was clear and blue behind them.

It was one of those flawless, beautiful afternoons. At home, on an afternoon like this, she'd go float around in the pool. When she wasn't spying on famous politicians and writing books, that was.

A part of her wanted to run back to Zinc's room and get him out and play ball with him, but she was far too tired to walk to his room which was on the other side of Hogwarts. And her legs didn't feel like running around with him.

She sat down on one of the cold stone benches, and put her bag down at her feet, before drawing her knees up to her chin. Once she was in a comfortable position, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take over.

It did come- in a matter of seconds.

*

She stirred and opened her eyes when she heard footsteps.

Her watch told her she'd only been asleep fifteen minutes. But she felt better after this peaceful fifteen-minute sleep.

Oh right. Back to the footsteps...

She turned her head slightly towards the noise and, oooh, guess who it was? His face held the look Kyle wore when he completed a mischievous task. Like a cat that'd swallowed a fat, juicy mouse. Or Zinc when he'd tricked Leah into getting out of bed.

He stopped short and looked genuinely pleased to see her. _She _was pleased to see that he'd obviously forgotten about The Bed incident.

'Hi there, Leah.'

'Is class over?'

'Nah. I'm…' he walked over, and said, 'bunking.' Then he smirked, and it made Leah's stomach do the silly stuff again. 'And you?'

'I was sleeping.' _Until your elephantine footsteps woke me up._

Sirius looked behind his shoulder, suddenly like a criminal on the run. He leant closer to Leah, and said, in a low voice, 'I think Schwep saw me. He's going to haul us both back into class. Come on, we can-'

But she wasn't bunking, was she? 'I'm not bunking.'

'_Right._' Sirius said, slowly, 'You're just sleeping outside in the corridor, while you're supposed to be in Divination.'

'She said-'

They could now hear hurried footsteps.

Sirius looked at her in the eye, and she felt his fingers close around her arm. 'Detention or running?'

She didn't want to do this. She really just wanted to go back to sleep. But Schwep was an immensely devoted caretaker (when it came to turning students in to Dumbledore) and the last thing Leah needed right now was getting into a teacher's bad books. She picked up her bag, roughly snatched her arm away and followed Sirius hurriedly down the corridor. It was obviously one of the scarier parts of Hogwarts- ugly statues stared down at her, paintings depicting tortured witches, insane wizards and other not-so-nice things hung on the walls.

Sirius stopped suddenly and held up a hand to stop her too. They could now her Schwep crying, 'Ah, Black- this time I'll turn you in.'

Leah looked in the direction of his voice, and though she was worried, excitement was also present in her. Sneaking around was familiar territory.

Sirius grinned, and drew up a tapestry of a bloodied, eyeless witch. There was a stone wall beside it. He tapped it thrice, like, tip tap tap, and slowly, a small door emerged.

'Ladies first.' he said, opening it. Leah climbed in quickly, and Sirius followed. She was on a very small landing, and she had to bend because the ceiling was low. Sirius's body was pressed against her own, and she looked down at the steep, narrow staircase leading down into darkness.

'Shall we go?'

'I think we should.'

She drew her wand and muttered, '_Lumos._'

The wall was smooth and slippery, but she pressed her free palm on it and slowly made her way down.

'Ease up.' Sirius said behind her, 'I'm right behind you.'

She pretended she hadn't heard that. The stairs came to an end after almost five minutes, and this landing was only about a few centimeters bigger than the one on top. There was barely any space left when both she and Sirius were standing in it.

Leah had never felt more awkward before. Sirius didn't smell bad, which was a good thing, since neither Kyle nor Ian had body odor either and Leah wasn't used to smelly guys. But she'd never been stuck in a room so tiny that she was pressed against someone who was neither Kyle nor Ian.

Her legs gave out beneath her and she slid to the floor and stretched them onto the first step. Maybe she could get some sleep now… and ignore the awkwardness of this situation- being pressed against Sirius Black, who always tried to flirt with her.

There was movement beside her as Sirius sat down too, and stretched his even longer legs out beside hers. It would have been so much _easier _if it had been Kyle beside her. Even if he was a stupid jerk who'd smirked at her most of the day after she'd left their dorm that morning. Because of Sirius's bed and all that.

'Chocolate?' Sirius asked, breaking the silence.

She looked at the bar he drew out of his robes. Honeydukes. So she held out her hand. He broke it into half and handed one half to her.

'Any news of your dog yet?'

'Zinc. His name is Zinc.' Leah said, trying to sound like she didn't really want to talk about this. She didn't, actually. But for a different reason than Sirius was supposed to imagine.

'Nice name.' Sirius said, and his eyes bore into the side of her face, willing her to answer the question.

'No. They haven't found him yet.' Leah muttered, staring at the low ceiling above her and taking a bite of the chocolate, 'You have a dog yourself?'

Sirius chuckled humorlessly, almost bitterly, 'I want one. That's probably why I don't have one.'

'Why.' It wasn't a question. She barely even sounded interested. Just mildly curious. In fact, she was too busy taking another mouthful of chocolate to make eye-contact. It annoyed him slightly (that she wasn't EYING HIS BOD), hurt his pride and well… just made him get even more attracted to her.

'You don't even want to know.' He stated, trying to keep his cool, because he didn't go around spouting sob stories to girls he was trying to attract.

She looked up slowly, 'If I didn't, would I ask?'

'It's because I got born into a stupid, stuck-up, snooty-nosed family.' He pretty much spat, and Leah looked at him in surprise. And then she frowned.

They were much more squashed against each other than they had been in the beginning… was it just her, or was the room suddenly feeling more cramped? Was it the effect of something Black had put into the chocolate? Some childish prank to make her blow-up, perhaps… But she looked at him and he was still taller than her and her wrists were still the same size.

'Something…' she said, 'Is wrong…'

'What?' he asked, distracted.

She pointed at the walls and ceilings, and got to her feet. And realized she had to bend.

Sirius got up, and he had to bend even more than she did.

'I don't get it… it's almost like the rooms shrinking.' He laughed, scratching his head.

Leah stared at him, and he stopped laughing suddenly as comprehension dawned on both of them. At the same moment, they could _see _the walls and ceiling closing in on them, not very slowly, going to crush them sadistically to their deaths if they didn't escape.

Leah didn't need to think. She ran. She flew up the stairs, followed closely by Sirius who'd been startled into action by her flight. The stairs seemed to have grown longer, and even here, the walls closed in on them, the ceiling lowered itself…

'Go faster!' Sirius urged, now literally running on his knees.

Leah's bag- swinging along with her quick movement- whacked him hard and unexpectedly in the face and he stumbled back a few steps, falling face-flat.

He tried to get to his feet, and he could see the door above them. But Leah kept running, either not knowing he'd fallen and was trying to get to his feet and wasn't succeeding, or because she just didn't care enough.

'Leah!' he yelled, finally managing to get to his feet.

She'd flung the door open when he yelled her name.

She spun around as if hoping to see him before her, but saw him a good five steps behind, the ceilings and walls closing in. Sirius couldn't see her face: he didn't know what she was thinking.

But then she skid forward, grabbed his hand and they flung themselves up the steps again and out into the cold corridor just as the walls smashed together with a sickening crunch.

They fell against the cool corridor wall, panting.

Sirius grinned and laughed in relief. God, James would go green with envy when he heard about this! They'd never actually used this hideout before, and so they hadn't known it enjoyed crushing people to death. And James loved near-death experiences as much as Sirius did.

Then his eyes fell on Leah, who had bent over, trying to catch her breath. She was deathly pale, and when she heard his laugh, her dark eyes fell on him, blank but staring.

'I don't see anything funny.' She said, 'you don't either.'

'Right.' Sirius grinned, 'Then why'd I laugh?'

'Relief.'

Sirius held up a palm and leant forward, smiling at her. Leah leant back automatically, feeling her heart flutter like the dumbass it was when Sirius was around.

'I owe you one for not letting me get crushed to death.'

Leah straightened up and moved away from him, looking at the time, before cracking a smile, 'Yeah. You owe me.'

*

'Leah, we covered for you.' Marlene said, checking her reflection on the window's glass.

'Said you hadn't been feeling well.' Angie continued, 'Marlene! Don't just block the entire corridor like that!'

Marlene let out a wail about how gross her hair looked, but peeled herself away from the glass because Lily wanted to get to the next class ASAP.

'So where were you, Leah?' Alice asked, falling behind the others with Leah.

Leah shrugged, 'Somewhere in the corridor.'

Somehow, she didn't want to tell Alice she'd gone into a tiny little secret passageway that crushed people to death with Sirius Black. It was bad enough remembering how she'd almost left him to die. Sure, Black and his flirting annoyed her, but to think she'd _almost left him to die…!_

She stowed her hands deep into the pockets of her robes, wishing her brain would JUST ADMIT she hadn't seen he'd fallen.

It was true, too. She hadn't noticed he wasn't behind her until he'd yelled her name, and then, she'd not given the situation a second thought- she'd turned and run back down to haul his heavy frame up the stairs.

'You alright there, Leah?' Angie said loudly, slinging her arm around Leah's shoulder.

'Huh- oh, yeah, I'm fine, Ange.' Leah said, smiling. 'So what did Alfalfa do?'

'I don't know. I was… sleeping with my eyes open.' Angie shrugged, 'So was Alice. And Marlene. And surprise, surprise- Lily too!'

'I think Divination's silly.' Lily sniffed, 'Because last time, she told me my cat was going to die. And I don't even have a cat.'

'I understand Divination.' Leah said briefly.

'Lucky you. To me, it's a load of fluff.' Marlene said, now preoccupied with her nails, 'Goes in through one ear- flies out of the other. Anyway…' She caught Angie's eye and they smirked.

'Sirius went out too. Did you see him around?' Angie asked, trying to keep her face straight.

Leah rolled her eyes and said calmly, 'Yes. Stop making silly faces.

'Leah,' Angie said, now business-like, 'every girl in this school would kill to be in your place. They wouldn't mind killing _you _to be in your place. I mean, it's _Sirius _we're talking about here. Either you're extremely stupid and not seizing your opportunities or you must be lesbian-'

'Ange!' Leah said, shrugging her arm off.

'Ange, shut up, won't you?' Alice demanded, but there was a grin on her lips.

Leah was grateful when they entered the classroom. She took care to sit as far away from Angie and Marlene as she could. She really didn't want to hear how stupid she was, how amazing Sirius was, how every girl loved him, how she was probably a lesbian… No, she wasn't interested.

She heard more people enter the classroom.

After a while, her twin plopped down beside her. There. Her five minutes of silence and peace was over.

Crash.

Boom.

Gone.

Now she had Kyle prodding her and asking where she'd been during Divination, and why she hadn't tried saving him too.

'I was just somewhere, Kyle!' She snapped out finally, and pinched his hand as hard as she could. 'And stop poking!'

'Somewhere with Sirius.' Kyle said smugly, and leant back to admire the effect his words had on his sister.

Leah stared at him, surprised that he knew.

'To save myself from detention.' She said finally, pressing down the urge to wipe that stupid grin from his face.

'Hey, hey, breathe in, breathe out, Leah. I was just-'

'Making fun of me?'

'Yeah… but that's because I love you, remember? It's the sibling thing!'

'Hey, Leah. Is it true about the room almost crushing you to death?' It was James now, breathing down her neck, almost green with envy.

Leah looked at Sirius who was looking pleased with making James go green with envy. 'Don't worry. James, Kyle and Peter are the only ones who know.' He said quickly, 'I swear.'

'Yeah… true.' Leah said, in answer to James's question, opening her notebook and taking out a quill.

James grinned, 'That's it. Kyle, mate- we're going to check it out as soon as possible.'

'Yeah, sure-' Kyle began, but then let out a small yelp as Leah drove the sharp-end of the quill into his thigh, 'Leah!'

'What?' she asked innocently, but her eyes had the scary glint in them, and they were clearly saying, 'You're not going. _YOU _are not going.'


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Leah yawned into her potions book, and cast a look at her partner, who was doodling the words LE into his book. He obviously thought she couldn't see them, but she did.

She wondered- rather mistily- who that might be. Lily? No, Sirius couldn't possibly be attracted to Lily… Maybe Louisa Ergs, the fifth year. And then it hit her that _she _too had the initials LE.

Groaning inwardly, she wondered if he _was _referring to her. But whatever… it didn't matter. Immature guys with wild hormones always fell in love. Leah would know- she lived with one for her whole life- even before life, for that matter. Kyle had been in the same womb with her.

Leah often thought that was why she always curled up tightly in her bed and slept- because Kyle had taken up _far _too much space in the womb and left none for her, and now she used to sleeping on the edges of her bed.

But still, there was a small part of her (which she wished didn't exist) that hoped it _was _her name he'd been doodling.

Now he was drawing a… dog.

She felt some sympathy for him. He must really want one. Maybe if Zinc ever had puppies- yeah, right- she'd let him have one.

Stifling _another _yawn, she looked across the room at Kyle, who was sneakily stuffing his face with chocolate…

Chocolate!

She dove into her bag, and groped around until her hands closed over the slightly melted bar. She took it out, just as Sirius looked up, sniffing the air delicately, before his eyes fell on the chocolate.

'You want some…?' Leah asked.

He held out his hand, grinning and flicking hair out of his eyes with the other.

For once, Leah didn't feel her stomach do flips, because she'd noticed how… dog-like he'd looked when he'd sniffed. And it was like he'd _smelt _the chocolate.

After breaking off a piece for him, she sniffed too and could smell nothing.

'What're you _doing_?' Sirius asked, amused.

'Nothing.'

'No, it looked to _me _as if you were _sniffing the air._'

'So?' Leah said nastily, _it's not illegal, is it? _'You do it too.'

Sirius shifted a bit, and his eyes flickered over to James. But he recovered in an instant. 'Whoa, calm down, Leah. It's just an old habit. 'Course you can sniff like a dog if you like.'

She made her way into the library and towards her favorite aisle- the one with the thick, dusty novels.

Madame Pince looked at her over her hawk-like nose, and Leah hurriedly ducked behind the shelves, comforted by the smell of books. All these summersaults and not being able to stop looking at Black was REALLY getting on her nerves. It was very disorienting too.

Books made her feel like she was home. Something she hadn't felt in weeks since she'd come to Hogwarts.

She drew her wand and got the ladder to shift her way. It came with a low creaking sound, and then halted in front of her. Positioning it correctly, she climbed up, slowly, because she wasn't incredibly fond of heights. The eleventh shelf had a whole lot of interesting books on top.

Outside, she could see the Ravenclaws practicing Quidditch… Hmm… normally, the houses all practiced together- even people _not _Quidditch teams. It was all blue, blue, blue right now though, like little blue MnMs against the bright sky and greenery.

She stood up on her toes, peering at the spines.

'Oi, Leah!'

The voice and grip on her ankle was so sudden she lost her balance and nearly fell down the ladder, but the culprit pushed her back up by her legs and helped her regain balance.

'Kyle!' she snapped, after a string of swear-words.

'Knew I'd find you here.' He said cheerfully, yanking her robe in an attempt to make her sit. She kicked at his hand impatiently, and climbed back down the ladder.

'What is it _now_?'

'Wicked news, that's what, fungus face!' her twin said, grinning triumphantly and looking down at her.

'You found out what the paw-prints meant?' Leah asked, unable to think of anything else.

'Paw-prints? What paw- Oh, those. No, dipshit.'

'Stop calling me names.'

'Oh, right, sorry, sis. Got carried away. The thing is…' he paused dramatically, putting a hand on her shoulder and focusing his eyes into hers. Yes, something had made Kyle very happy. She knew that look, 'The Quidditch tournament is in three days! We've been practicing like crazy, but I never expected it to be so soon. Apparently, the weather's going to be bad later, so…'

Leah shoved him in the chest, 'You almost made me crack my skull on the ground for _that_?'

'Leah…'

'OK, Kyle, that's great news.' Leah sighed, 'I hope you win.'  
'We.' He corrected.

So Leah lost her only peaceful time listening to her twin go on and on and _on _about QUIDDITCH and the TEAMS and how many chances Gryffindor had to win, and blah blah blah.

She wasn't really listening- her hands absentmindedly playing with Kyle's fingers- it was something she liked doing because it soothed her- while her mind was far away, thinking of Zinc curled up in his little cupboard, thinking of Sirius and his curious cocking of the head, the barking laughter , the sniffing…

Leah barely saw James, Sirius or Kyle after that.

They were mostly on the Quidditch pitch, and when they came back, they were worn out, sweaty and all set to go out and practice again.

She slept outside with Zinc again that night, and this time it was better- she managed to sleep through the whole night without waking up.

She awoke in the morning, and, followed by an obedient and cheerful Zinc went back into the castle, where she dropped him into his room with his breakfast and made her way back to _her _room to sleep.

As she walked towards the dorm, and got the Fat Lady to wake up and swing open, she heard voices, but it was too late to backtrack. They'd seen her and she'd seen them.

It was James and Sirius, with Peter sitting on the couch. But they weren't alone. Remus was there too, sitting beside Peter. And they were all staring at her.

'Morning, Leah! You're up early...' James said, rubbing a hand through his hair.

'Went for a walk?' Sirius asked cheerfully.

'Yes.' Leah lied, 'I couldn't sleep.'

She probably did look like she'd just woken up- she was wearing her pajamas, a wooly sweater pulled over them, and her hair wasn't combed, her eyes still bleary…

Her eyes fell on Remus who smiled at her. She nodded back, and hurriedly made her way towards the girls' dormitory.

Once in, she collapsed in her bed and tried to sleep, but couldn't.

Because some part of her really, _really _didn't like the Marauders for leaving her twin out of things.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

_**(Final match between Gryffindor and Slytherin)**_

'Leah, hurry up!' Lily called, holding her hood up over her head.

Rain fell down, only lightly now, though Leah knew enough about the weather to tell that it would be pouring soon. The bottom of her robes were splattered with mud and her boots made squelching sounds as she made her way towards the Gryffindor Quidditch tower.

She wished Dumbledore would postpone this silly match, considering the dreams she'd been having lately.

They all involved someone falling off a broomstick and Leah had little doubt it was Kyle. It made no sense … but it woke her up in the middle of the night, quaking with fear, sweating and battling the urge to go hug Kyle and never let go.

Only, she hadn't done that- gone and hugged Kyle- for one thing, if these dreams _were _only dreams, he'd laugh at her for the rest of her life. Kyle NEVER forgot the embarrassing things she did. And she _hated _Kyle laughing at her. And anyway, he hadn't fallen in the matches _before _this…

'HURRY _UP!_' Angie hollered, darting towards her and dragging her by the hand, 'We're going to be _late_!'

Leah ran up the stairs after her, slipping slightly on the wet wood. They got front seats- reserved for them by Remus and Peter.

She tried sitting for a few minutes, but found she was unable to. She _needed _to see Kyle before this match. He'd played tons of soccer matches before, but this was different…

'I'll be right back, alright?' she said to the others, and went back where she'd come from. Pushing past the people coming up to the Gryffindor stands, she made her way to the locker room where her twin was.

Already, the players were leaving. She stood in the shadows and waited for her twin to stroll past her. One hand darted out and grabbed the unsuspecting brunette.

'Who-? Oh, it's you Leah.' Kyle sighed, dropping his ridiculous, exaggerated Kung-fu stance.

She sensed he was slightly nervous and gave his hand a squeeze. 'Well…'

'You'd better watch me and tell me if Angie swoons when she sees me.' He said cheerfully, dark eyes watching his team disappear.

Leah nodded, reluctantly letting go of his hand. Kyle grinned, swooped unexpectedly and gave her a brief hug before starting to walk away.

'Kyle!' she cried out, desperation in her voice.

He stopped and turned, 'Yep?'

'You be careful… that's all.' She said, nodding.

''Course I will.' He shrugged, gave her a weird look and strode off after the team.

Leah watched him leave, before turning and going back to her seat.

'Leah, c'mon!' Alice said, excitedly waving a hand, 'Sit!'

Leah sat down beside Remus and looked over the railings. Peter was already hanging onto them, ready to start cheering. She looked down and saw the tiny specks enter the field, broomsticks ready in hand, cloaks hanging down stupidly from their bodies because they were all soaked.

The two captains shook hands and Leah saw Sirius looking up, eyes weirdly magnified by the goggles they had all donned to help them see through the rain.

Her breath caught in her throat as he spotted her and, ignoring Peter, he grinned. He raised a hand in a wave. Leah rolled her eyes and ignored him, like she had for the past few days.

Then she saw Kyle and a sick feeling crept into her stomach.

'Leah,' Remus asked, 'Are you alright?'

She nodded, and watched the players mount their brooms… the whistle blew…

The match was so good, it almost made Leah forget about her creepy dreams. No one fell off their brooms, which _had _to be a good sign.

Only five minutes to go, and it was still a tie. Leah watched Kyle feinting dives, trying to throw off the Slytherin Seeker.

The snitch was rather energetic today. Everyone craned their necks to take a better look at the Seekers, now so high they were only little dots under the dark, dripping clouds.

Leah leant forward, hands on her knees.

'Kyle, go on… you can do It.' she chanted in her head, in hopes of her twin hearing. Sadly, if he did hear anyone, it would be the entire Gryffindor chanting out the same thing, only a hundred times louder.

She squinted up, blinking hard as rain entered her eyes… Kyle was there, and he was reaching, and…

It happened so fast- one second he was up there, the snitch in his fingers, the next second, he was falling past her down, down…

His name escaped her lips before she knew it, and she felt someone put a restraining hand on her, as if they thought she might jump.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

She shrugged the hand off and tore down the stairs, slipping and sliding, towards the pitch where all the players were gathering.

'Leah!' she heard someone call after her, 'Leah, he's going to be _fine_!'

What did THEY know? Kyle could be dead for all she knew! And it was her fault… why hadn't she put sleeping potion into his before-the-match pumpkin juice? Or maybe she should have clung to his robes and refused to let go right before the godforsaken match…

_Kyle…_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The players had been all cleared away and now only Madam Hooch lent over her twin. Leah skidded across the field, mud splashing all the way up to her waist.

'Leah, don't worry about it-' someone- probably Sirius- said, trying to put a hand on her shoulder. She shook it off roughly and tried to push past Madam Hooch.

'Miss. Ebony, your brother will be fine… but right now, I really think you should move back and give him some air.'

Leah gave her a dirty look, but it went away as soon as her eyes fell on Kyle. He was pale, and one leg twisted at an odd angle. Blood stained the side of his face, seeping out of the wound on his head.

Silently, she stepped back. She watched them carry her twin past her, and she didn't move. He groaned very slightly when they lifted him, but despite being in great pain, not another sound escaped him.

Kicking at the mud, Leah pushed her wet hair behind her ears, squared her shoulders and stared at the retreating figures of Hagrid and Professor McGonagall.

A large part of her suddenly wanted and needed Zinc. But she couldn't move. She just couldn't. All around her, people were cheering because Gryffindor had won.

Kyle would be fine. He _always _miraculously recovered. Even the time he'd falling backwards of the diving board and whacked his head against concrete.

She was jolted out of her wistful wishing when a hand gently tapped her shoulder. She looked up and it was Sirius, staring down at her with a queer look on his face. It wasn't sympathetic, or pitying – thank god for that-, it was just understanding.

'Leah, c'mon… you'll catch a major cold out here.' He said, as though nothing had happened.

She felt a lump form in her throat. That was so much like Kyle… and _Zinc._ And also so much like Sirius himself. _And _he was being like this despite the fact that she'd ignored him since the day Remus came back.

She shrugged, pulled her raincoat over her wrists and started to walk back to the castle. She heard mud splashing behind her as Sirius used his long legs to match their pace.

'Common room?'

Leah shrugged. She didn't know. She didn't care. Anywhere where she could sit and hope Kyle would be alright.

'The fall was pretty bad.' She heard someone say to someone else, 'Last time someone fell from that height, he got paralyzed.'

Leah stopped… _he got paralyzed… he got _PARALIZED…

'Leah?' Sirius asked, stopping and turning as he realized she'd frozen on one spot.

Don't cry, Leah… don't _cry…_ She chanted over and over in her head, but even as she did so, her vision got blurred. She let out a choking sound. Shaking her head, she ran a hand over her eyes, trying to stem the tears.

But Sirius had seen.

This was the _second _time he'd seen her almost-cry. Before she knew it, she felt his cold hand snake around her arm.

'Sirius, good gam- Leah, what's wrong?'

She grimaced at him. As if Remus already didn't know…

'Kitchen, Moony. We're going to the kitchen.' Sirius said, 'Want to come?'

All through the walk to the kitchen, Sirius and Remus, much to Leah's relief, acted as though they hadn't seen her crying.

And then she remembered.

The _kitchen._ They were going to the KITCHEN, from where she got Zinc's food every day. The elves were BOUND to recognize her.

'I… don't feel like going to the kitchen.'

'It's the best place to be! I mean, it _smells _amazing and the Elves adore us.' Sirius said, looking surprised.

'Yes- we can get hot chocolate.' Remus offered, 'It's one of the best remedies for… anything.'

Leah shook her head, 'I'll shower… and go to bed…' _or try and take a look at Kyle._

'Right… if that helps.' Sirius said, and Leah felt a small pang of guilt when she heard the disappointment and concern hidden in his voice.

'Or…' she said, relenting, 'I'll wait near the Infirmary after I shower… can you get me some hot chocolate?'

Sirius flicked his slightly damp hair out of his eyes, and grinned, 'Sure. Do you like it super-sweet or-'

_I don't care right now…_

Remus nudged Sirius, who saw Leah's hands trembling slightly. She needed to be alone, and they understood that.

'I'll get it for you.' Sirius said, 'Don't worry about it.'

Leah nodded, almost gratefully, and she hurried off, leaving a trail of muddy footprints after her. She got her change in the common room, and no one saw her, because they were all too busy drinking smuggled-in Firewhisky (courtesy of the Marauders, probably) and waving around red and gold banners. She saw Alice, Angie, Marlene and Lily enjoying, but every once in a while, she saw them glance around, as though hoping to see her walk past (which she didn't, because she was in sleuth mode- stealthily making her way out of the common room).

The washroom was completely empty. She turned on one warm shower, and cleaned out her hair with shampoo, rhythmically rubbing her scalp to get her mind off Kyle. She scrubbed her body, and the smell of her soap (though it smelt of _her_) reminded her of Kyle.

She wasn't stupid. She'd seen him fall. She'd seen his leg- all twisted like that… she'd _heard _what happened to the other person who fell from _that _height…

She covered her mouth and felt tears mix with the warm shower water.

'Kyle… it's… all… my… fault…' she whispered, shoulders racking with sobs.

She wished Zinc was here now… but she'd already given him his food… not now. Zinc didn't need to be bothered. He wasn't her cry-pillow or something. She couldn't dump all her misery on him… Besides, he understood the gravity of this situation, and he'd therefore let her off this night's camp.

She was alone in this.

All alone.

Once she'd dried up, she pulled on her pajamas and her dressing gown and strode out to the medical wing. There was a stone bench around the corner, so if Madame Promfrey came out, she wouldn't see Leah and send her flying.

Leah drew her knees up to her chin and stared at the raindrops rolling down the stained glass windows. She sighed, and checked her watch.

Sirius had probably forgotten… she couldn't blame him: he was a Marauder, he was popular, and they'd won the match… No way would he be allowed to escape the party.

She sighed, and wondered how Kyle was doing… they'd have called her if he _was _paralyzed, right? And Dad and Ian would be here immediately if Kyle was in a _very _bad state…

'Boo!'

She jumped slightly, and looked up, hand going for her wand immediately.

'Just me… and your cocoa.' Sirius said cheerfully. He was clad in a long Muggle shirt and a pair of shorts. Leah gaped at him, momentarily forgetting that Kyle might be dying. Not because of his body- she barely noticed that- but because it was all… _Muggle._ And Sirius was from a very prejudiced Pureblood family- she knew that.

He used his wand to produce two mugs and a flask. Leah moved to make space for him. He sat down, and stretched one long leg out, the other folded beneath him.

'Sugar?'

'Two cubes.' Leah muttered. He handed the steaming cup to her, and she wrapped her palms around it, feeling the warmth seeping through her cold hands.

'Are you planning to sneak into the infirmary?' Sirius asked.

Leah shook her head. 'I…' she cast a sideways glance at Sirius, asking herself if she was ready to open up a bit to him. Sure, he'd left Kyle out… had a dog-involving secret… but she needed someone right now, 'I just need to be here, near him.'

'You can't camp out here.'

'I wasn't going to.' She said, and then thought, _but now that you've given me the idea…_ To steer conversation into something lighter, she asked, 'What's with the clothes?'

'What about them?'

'They're Muggle.'

'Hmm… looks like they are.' He said, looking down at his flip-flops, 'So?'

Leah grimaced into her cup. She didn't feel like being polite. She didn't feel like beating around the bush. 'Your family is anti-Muggle.' She stated bluntly, 'I don't understand. How do they allow it?'

'They don't.'

He felt her eyes finally fall on him. He looked back at her. Leah looked amazing to him (as usual). But today, she also looked sadly vulnerable and tired. The large droopy white dressing gown only made her look smaller, like those porcelain dolls his mother collected. Only, of course, Leah was a thousand times better than them. Her dark hair stood in direct contrast with the pale skin, and all this time, she'd worn a blank, unfeeling mask.

As he said that, though, it softened into understanding and sympathy. Not the pitying kind, which Sirius was grateful for. He hated being _pitied._ He didn't do pity and he didn't like others doing it for him, either.

'Rebel.' She said, smiling slightly.

'Hmm… guess I am.' Sirius said, returning the smile. Her smile faltered, because _Kyle _was kind of a rebel too. How could _anyone _rebel if they were paralyzed?

Immediately, she averted her gaze and stared into her almost empty mug.

Sirius stared up at the ceiling, 'So why were you mad at me all these days?'

'I wasn't.'

'You ignored us because you _weren't_ mad at us?'

Leah fumbled around for an answer. What should she say? Because they had a secret involving paw-prints and they hadn't told Kyle? Yeah, right. 'I had my reasons.' She said finally.

'Won't pry.' Sirius said, chuckling. Then he turned serious, 'But we're alright now, right?'

Leah nodded, suddenly remembering again, why she was here. Because Kyle was suffering and she wanted to be near him. What sort of help was she being? Sipping cocoa and sitting with Sirius Black- one of the people who'd left her twin out.

'He's going to be fine.' Sirius said suddenly, and Leah wanted so badly to just believe him.

She cleared her throat, and asked what was nagging her… 'I heard… uh…' cleared her throat again, 'Someone fell from that height before… and got paralyzed.'

Sirius groaned, 'Did you just hear half of it? You mean David Gnome? He fell near the statue of the head gargoyle- whacked his spine on the tail, and _then _fell. Anyone would get paralyzed if that happened. And anyway, it was dry then. Very.'

'But...'

'James was down there.' Sirius continued, 'He saw Kyle fall and it was a very soggy place, covered with a whole lot of weeds. It cushioned the fall.'

He yawned, and ran a hand over his eyes.

Leah didn't look up. He'd see the disbelief written on her face. She stared at her slippers instead.

'You can trust me on that, Leah.' He said, reading her tensing hands, her determined inability to look at him, 'I'm Sirius Black; I don't lie to make people feel better.' He grinned.

Kyle! That was so OBNOXIOUS just like Kyle…

Leah stood up and put the empty mug down. Sirius got up too, 'Want me to walk you to the common room? Corridors aren't safe after nine.'

Leah let him "walk her" to the common room, though she knew the worst that could happen to her in the corridors after nine, would be either the caretaker finding her, or, if she considered the _actual worst_- Peeves finding her and dropping something liquidly, slimy or plain disgusting on her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 17**

Kyle had expected Leah to turn up in the dead of night.

He had expected her to stare down at him, worried, looking like a ghost in her white nightgown.

What he had _not _expected, though, was to see two large eyes suddenly stare down at him from beside her, joyfully.

'Leah, you got _Zinc_?' he hissed, lifting him off his pillow, about two inches, with a lot of effort.

She shrugged. 'Yes. He was worried too.'

'Leah, _Madame Promfrey is in the next bloody room_.'

'So?' she asked blankly, either not understanding, or just refusing to understand.

Kyle groaned. 'For someone so smart, you're pretty dumb sometimes.'

She shrugged. 'Should I go then?'

'No, stay!' he said, hurriedly, reaching out to grasp her sleeve, and wincing.

'Did she give you any pain killers?' Leah asked, bending over his bedside table.

'I think.'

She held up a small ugly black tablet and handed it to him, along with a glass of water, while Zinc looked at Kyle.

'Leah, he's been exercised, right?' Kyle asked, once he'd taken the tablet and taken a few deep breaths to gain the energy he'd lose already.

'Not as much as required. That's why I took him out for a walk and brought him down here.'

'Is he on leash?'

'Obviously. Can you shut up and lie down now?'

Kyle lay down, and watched his twin as she planted laid a hand on the big dog's head. Zinc was almost her height when she sat. Within a few months, he'd probably be taller.

Leah yawned and buried her chin in Zinc's fur, shutting her eyes briefly, hand clenched tightly around Zinc's leash.

Kyle shut his eyes too.

'You know…' Leah said suddenly, her voice tight, controlled; she was probably afraid of bursting into tears any second.

'Don't cry, wimp.' Kyle groaned, cracking one eye open.

That did it. All traces of tears gone, his twin glared back at him, albeit slightly grateful for the insensitive reply that had checked her humiliating tears.

She threw back her hair, and said, 'I wasn't going to cry. Not for _you_.'

Kyle grinned. 'Of course.'

She scoffed and suddenly looked at Zinc, who was stretching and crouching.

'Sit, Zinc.' She commanded.

Her dog simply coiled himself.

'Zinc- no. No, don't you dare-' She didn't complete it, but fell on the floor with a loud crash, slightly muffled by her nightgown (Thank god for that- or Madame Promfrey would have heard it and bustled out, demanding to know what was going on).

The leash got yanked away from Leah's hand, as Kyle fumbled for his wand and Leah got to her feet.

Cursing, Leah sped after Zinc, holding up her trailing nightdress and disappearing into the dark corridor outside.

Leah didn't know how long she ran after Zinc.

All she knew was that he was going towards the same door she took him through every morning, out to the fields.

Her legs and lungs begged her to stop, but, obviously- she couldn't.

She couldn't even scream for Zinc to stop for fear of making the portraits smell a rat.

Zinc seemed on Cloud Nine- god, that STUPID, STUPID dog! He was a mere dot in the distance now, almost _flying _over the cold stone tiles.

If she could just get the leash…

The cold wind outside hit her full-on in the chest and face, and mud splattered up her nightdress. The rain began to pelt down just then, but did that stop Zinc? _No._ Nope. It never occurred to him that he would be muddy and disgusting and wet and cold, and _dead meat _by the time Leah was through with him.

'Stop!' she could scream now, because she was quite far from the castle.

Zinc simply looked over his shoulder, barked, and continued on his flight to freedom.

'Oh, for GOD'S sake, Zinc! STOP!' Leah hollered, suddenly stopping.

_Why _hadn't she let Ian make her run five rounds of the pool?

She leant against a tree, panting, and wiping water out of her eyes, with her soaking sleeves.

Herr feet- bare because she'd lost her bedroom slippers on the chase- were two muddy _things_ with curled up toes.

Leah threw back her head and let anxiety eat her up as she squinted through the rain. Where was Zinc? Would he be stupid enough to enter the Forbidden Forest? Or go near the Whomping Willow? She could see it now- eerily bare and black, standing firmly against the mad rain.

That was when she saw three figures running out… from… the _Whomping Willow_. One was a dog, another a four-legged creature too big and graceful to be a dog. And the third thing, running beside them, was without doubt, a _human_. A student maybe!

Suddenly, she was certain it was one of the Marauders. Drat the bloody rain. She couldn't be _sure_. But if it was one of them, then it would _vaguely _explain the paw-prints in Kyle's room.

She felt something cold and waterproof slip over her.

Startled, she looked up and saw Remus staring down at her from underneath a raincoat.

'Come on.' He said, 'Come on!'

'I can't-'

Why couldn't she? He probably thought she was insane, running out in the rain like this. But Zinc- 'I can't.' she repeated darkly.

'Leah, you'll fall ill!'

It all happened very quickly then- she saw Zinc running towards her, and obviously, Remus saw nothing because the Selective Invisibility Charm was still on. Zinc, smart dog, paused when he saw Remus and wagged his wet tail at Leah before beginning to walk back towards the castle slowly.

Leah hugged the raincoat tightly around herself and ran back with Remus.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Kyle looked at the ceiling as Leah changed behind the curtains of the other bed. She'd come in, wet and dripping, and had used one of the towels from the Hospital wing's linen cupboard to dry herself.

'I hate Zinc.' She muttered, from the other side, loud enough from him to here.

Kyle simply rolled his eyes, though she couldn't see.

'I knew you'd do that.' Leah snapped, yanking the curtains aside with a ferocity that reflected the bad temper Zinc had brought on.

'Do what?' he asked, wondering if she'd finally unhinged.

'_Roll your eyes_.' She replied, irritably, flopping down on the other bed, 'I know you did, so don't lie.'

'Don't get your panties-'

'Don't use words like that, you pathetic womanizing-'

'Go to hell, Leah.' He interrupted calmly.

'Maybe after you.'

'OK, you're angry…'

'No, you're just irritating.'

'I wish you'd show the others this side of yours more often.' Kyle said.

'I try not to for fear of exposing your humiliated, sniveling side in front of Angie.' She muttered, less heatedly, as she sighed into her pillow.

'Where's Remus? I thought you said he saw you.'

'He said he'll be here in a while…' she said, stifling a yawn and realizing suddenly what a close shave that had been. Fortunately for her Remus was an unsuspecting, polite gentleman. She closed her eyes, thinking about the strange sight she had seen.

Oh, god, she had to tell Kyle- 'K-' She began, and stopped suddenly as the Marauders waltzed into the room.

Well, James pranced in, Sirius glided, Remus shuffled and Peter waddled into the room.

She stared at them: they were dry. So Remus must have warned them. And that meant they were hiding something!

_What _were they hiding? The dog? The dog inside the Whomping Willow?

It occurred to Leah that she was becoming obsessed with what their secret was- her nosiness was kicking in.

'Guess what we got you, mate.' James said cheerfully, and dropped a handful of chocolates onto Kyle's lap.

Kyle beamed.

'Yeah, and there's Beans, too.' Peter said happily, showering Kyle with said sweets.

Kyle grinned some more.

'And… Butterbeer!' Sirius said, holding up the bottles.

'Drop that on him too.' Leah muttered.

James snorted, hearing her, 'Go on, Padfoot.'

Sirius grinned and raised his arms.

'Shut up.' Kyle said, smile half-fading as he held up his own arms up in defense over his head.

'Leave him alone.' Remus said.

Sirius, much to Leah's discomfort, sat down at the edge of her bed. She curled up her toes and looked away. Really? Amongst the twenty or so empty beds in the room, her bed was the most alluring?

'Butterbeer?' Sirius asked politely.

She accepted the bottle, and sat up, drawing her legs closer to her, keeping an eye on Sirius. Butterbeer made her sleepy and she really just wanted to sleep right now- without Sirius Black watching her snore and snort and make faces while she slept.

'So, did we win?' Kyle asked.

'By a hundred and five points!' James said, grinning and ruffling up his black hair, 'Kyle, my man, you're a bloody wicked player.'

Kyle – immodest prat- laughed, and simply lapped up the compliments, forgetting to mention Ian's major role in his amazing Quidditch skills.

Leah took a sip of her Butterbeer, surprised to find it was rather warm. She alternated her gaze between watching her twin to see if he hurt or weakened, and keeping an eye on Sirius- something was wrong with him. She couldn't pin down _what_- but he seemed restless- there went his fingers, twitching continuously. His grey eyes were gleaming eerily as he listened to the others talk, but he didn't say much himself.

Leah looked at the large clock hanging on the wall, the pendulum swinging right, and then left… right, left… right, left… right… left…left…

She jolted out of her daze and jerked her nodding head up.

'Sleepy, Leah?' Sirius asked.

'Yes.' She said, 'Stop looking at me like that.'

Sirius played innocent- 'Like what?'

_Like I'm you're next meal, you ass_.

She shrugged, and got to her feet, wrapping the blanket around herself because she felt cold.

'Leaving, Leah?' Kyle asked.

'I'm sleepy.'

He threw a chocolate bar to her, and it bounced off her arm and fall to the floor. She sighed, 'G'night.'

'G'night.' James said absentmindedly, since he was concentrating hard on finding the perfect Jelly Bean.

'I'll come with you.' Sirius offered.

'I can go alone.' She said.

'Nah,' he said, getting to his feet, 'I'll come with you.'

'Mate.' James said, suddenly, looking up and staring at Sirius's back, a frown marring his features, 'Why don't you just stay? There's that excellent suggestion you thought of- you know, to help Kyle notfall next time.'

'You can tell him, Jamsie.' Sirius said carelessly, and followed Leah, who had started walking away.

The corridors had been consumed by a dark shadow, broken in some places by the flickering torches.

Leah took another swig of the Butterbeer, and clutched the trailing blanket around her.

Sirius hadn't said a word so far, and for once, Leah felt the urge to break the silence.

'Thanks.' She said, 'For coming to see Kyle.'

He flicked his hair out of his eyes, 'Of course.'

Then he laughed.

'So you were going to camp with Kyle tonight?'

'No.' she said, 'Not really. Are you OK?'

'Never been better. Why? Do I look sick?'

Leah shook her head, smiling a little.

Sirius suddenly stopped walking. Leah paused too, and looked around at him, inquiringly.

He was staring at someone. Someone in silk Slytherin pajamas, with the same hair and the same eyes.

'What're you doing out here?'

'I'm going down to the kitchens. Slytherins hold parties too, _brother_.' Regulus said, sneering perfectly, 'Who's the lucky girl?' he added, barely even looking at Leah, 'A new object of attraction?'

'You shut up, you little-'

'I bet mother won't be pleased. But then, she won't be pleased about you shagging the Ravenclaw traitor in the broom cupboard either- or the Gryffindor Mudblood, or the Slytherin whore.'

Leah felt a little sick. She'd never actually been confronted by Sirius's active sex life. She shouldn't have been surprised though.

'Oh, and I've got some leftovers from what Mother sent me this week. Want some?' Regulus jibed.

Sirius drew out his wand, and just as quickly, Leah slammed herself against him, making him lose his balance, and threw her Butterbeer at Regulus.

The bottle missed by an inch and crashed to the ground, splattering the liquid over his pajamas. The green glass broke into a million shards.

'Leave now. _Now_. Go. Or I'll hex you.'

Regulus looked at the broken glass at his feet, touched the side of his face, from where the whole bottle had passed a few seconds ago, and then, he swept away.

Leah leant against the wall, and slid to the floor.

'You can cry, if you want.' She said quietly to Sirius who was staring at the glass, lips pressed together, wand still in hand. She couldn't empathize, but she could at least _be there _or _listen_.

'_You _can cry, if _you _want.' He said.

'Me? Why?'

'You can't imagine hating Kyle like that.'

When he said it, it made her shiver and go pale. To have Kyle hate her like that… ever… She nodded.

'But I'm not going to cry.' She said dully, looking at the broken glass and the splattered Butterbeer that would have been better off in her stomach.

'_Reparo_.' Sirius muttered, and turned towards her, eyes raking over her.

She looked away and rearranged her blanket. Of course, she knew she couldn't sleep here- but it wasn't so bad and the Butterbeer was working…

_Don't be stupid._

She sighed and began to get to her feet when she was pushed back down.

'What's wrong?' she asked, irritably, and then faltered, because once again, _Black was so close._

She could smell something was wrong- not as in, she could smell trouble: who could? - But his breath smelt faintly of the Firewhisky sometimes served at parties… Firewhisky and plain beer.

Sirius Black leant closer, so his nose touched her and his hands went around her arms.

_Ravenclaw traitor in the broom cupboard…_ _Gryffindor Mudblood…_ _the Slytherin whore… Stacy McKinnon… Pregnant at sixteen… Abortion… Slut… Lisa Howards… Sirius Black: Number One Womanizer…_

Leah threw him back, as hard as she could all wrapped up in her blanket.

She had been _this _close to giving in.

'Stay away.' She muttered, her voice hoarse, 'I don't want to have sexual intercourse in a corridor with someone who has it with at least ten girls a week. You're drunk. That… that just makes it worse.'

She grimaced, and staggered to her feet and began walking away.

'Leah! Leah, wait, I'm not-'

Dammit, he was walking after her.

She broke into a run, not daring to look back or stop.


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm so sorry for that long silence.**

**It may come again- writers block lurks in every corner of every day, and my board exams loom menacingly over me. **

**I hope you like it. I just realized I couldn't leave Leah hanging. Thank you all for the reviews. 22 is a small number for 18 chapters, but those reviews still make my day. They're the reason I'm continuing this.**

**READ! ^_^**

**Chapter 18**

Leah ran.

She lost track of time. Each corridor merged into another.

Blood drummed in her ears, loud and constant.

She could hear something else, too- Black's footsteps, his pleas, her name.

Stupid, stupid. She was running like someone being chased by a knife-wielding maniac, when really it was only Sirius Black, allegedly guilty about his attempt to _get some._

And then she was out in the open, back in the rain. The concrete floor of the courtyard was cold and hard, unrelenting on her feet. She kicked off Kyle's bedroom slippers and kept running, not turning around.

Was Black following?

She couldn't hear anything over the rain.

It was dark, and she ran ahead, before ducking behind a tree. She pressed herself against it, waiting like a rabbit hiding from the hunting dogs.

Sirius Black ran past.

He stopped a few feet away, looked around aimlessly in the dark.

Leah's breathe hitched in her chest when she saw him turn his head. Was that guilt, smeared across his face, blending with the rain drops?

He straightened up and strode right past her, unseeing.

For what seemed like ages, Leah stood against her tree, trying to seek comfort in its rough, soggy bark.

It was just a kiss.

Kyle would probably laugh at her.

The last person she'd kissed was Bennett Wazri, Kyle's Quidditch captain, the only person she'd ever been infatuated with. And he hadn't been drunk the first time they kissed. They'd been sitting amongst long blades of grass, Zinc swimming in the nearby lake.

He ended up dead, killed by Death Eaters, still clutching the Snitch in his hand while his elegant mother tore her twenty galleon silk scarf in anguish.

Finally, Leah pushed herself away from her tree and slowly, tearfully, made her way back to the castle, dripping like a soggy tea-biscuit onto its ancient stone floors.

Sleep came quickly.

She slipped into it easily, welcoming its warm mind-wipe.

Waking up was difficult.

Did the Sleeping Beauty feel this way when she finally awoke?

Did she feel sick, and upset, and pulled so taut she was afraid she'd snap?

Outside, the fields looked clean and washed. The trees were a brighter green, the sky milky white with a brilliant sun, scorching the glistening courtyards. Leah could have sworn she saw the water evaporating.

"Leah, Leah, Leah, Leaaaaaaaaah!"

Leah looked up in alarm as Angie dived onto her, knocking her back into her soft bed.

"It's a beautiful day!" Lily called, rushing around in her underwear, pulling on her skirt, "Leah, you don't want to miss it- Alice and Marlene have gone to ask McGonagall to _please, please, please _let us off Transfiguration today."

Angie bounced off Leah, laughing, golden curls flying. "I'm going to go see Kyle. Do you think I should go? Will he want to see me? Maybe he's too tired- Leah?"

She tilted Leah's head back, until she was looking into her eyes.

"Leah, is something wrong?"

"No." The word tumbled out, and if only that lie were the truth.

Angie looked concerned, "You look so tired. And upset. Did you sleep last night?"

"I was with Kyle." She replied, trying really hard to bring some life into her voice. She must have succeeded, because as she continued, Angie's face relaxed. "He's fine. And he'd love to see you, Angie."

"Good! Then I'm _go-ing_!"

As she bounded out of the dorm, Lily put Leah's clothes on her bed, while running a comb through her hair and magically tying her shoelaces. She was a whirl of activity, but her almond-eyes grew worried as she saw Leah.

Leah got the feeling Lily was looking past the mask of normality, seeing the anger, the irritation, the shock she was trying to push back down, to depths from where they would not be able to rise.

"Did something happen last night?" she inquired.

"No, Lily, nothing. I'm just tired, that's all."

Lily hesitated, and then reached out suddenly, almost making Leah jump. Her arms were around the other girl, in a quick, but comforting hug.

"You know Leah, you're a really strong person." She said quietly, letting go and patting Leah's head, "Your brother's lucky to have you."

"Which one?" Leah inquired, starting to climb out of her bed.

Lily grinned and flung back her head.

"Both of them."

In ten minutes, they were rushing down the staircases, towards the Great Hall for breakfast. Leah arrived there, a Lily- Evans- induced smile on her face.

And then she saw Black, lounging in his usual spot, laughing like last night had never happened.

The anger she felt was as abrupt and intense as the panic of the previous night, and it faded away suddenly, leaving behind a sort of despair, a binding feeling of helplessness.

"Morning Evans, Leah." James said, smiling at them, "Leah, Kyle told me to tell you he's on his wheelchair now. So he's taken care of The Work, whatever that is."

Feeding Zinc.

Oh, she loved Kyle.

She really, really did.

Alice shook out the newspaper, a triumphant smile on her face as she announced her victory over a certain Minerva McGonagall.

"She actually said, 'Well, it's a heavenly day, honestly. And Merlin knows, you children are going to _need _these, before you're confronted by the OWLS."'

"Minny's a pet." Sirius said cheerfully, avoiding looking Leah's way.

"Would you like some toast, Leah?" Remus asked, offering Leah the tray. She shook her head, taking a sip of her tasteless tea, "You haven't caught a cold, have you?" he asked in a lower voice, as the others roared over something James said.

Leah shook her head.

"I respect your privacy, Leah." He said, turning his large, light eyes on her. Leah saw something lurking in them. Fear. A sort of wistfulness. "But please, don't leave the castle at night. The outside is a dangerous place when the moon rises."

He looked tired, suddenly ten times older than he really was. She was looking at someone who had seen pain. Seen what it really meant. Her own problems seemed to shrink and dim in comparison.

She lied for the second time that day.

"I won't." she said quietly, "I won't leave the castle at night."

The lie made him smile.

So it was a kind lie.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Defense mechanisms.

Everyone had them.

Leah curled into a shell, retired to a place where Black couldn't touch her, where no one could touch her unless she wanted them to.

Her shell was invisible, unseen by the girls, by the Marauders and Kyle. But it was there, still there; ready to electrocute Black, if he tried to strut in.

Not that she should have worried.

_His _defense mechanism depended on external factors. Like girls who'd let him have his way. Leah wasn't jealous- oh no_, _she _wasn't._ She was safe. She was unharmed.

She wanted to sit with Kyle so badly, feel his long, familiar fingers- soothing to touch, but Angie was _always _there. And Kyle seemed to loveher presence.

The Sorting Hat's words came back to Leah more often the two days following her shocking night.

Does _he _need you as much as you need him?

Leah threw her sandwich into the lake and watched the Squid engulf it.

She didn't know.

She didn't think so.

"Someone should name it." She looked up and found Remus Lupin looking thoughtfully at the slimy creature, "Don't you think?"

"Alfred."

"Predictable. Name a dog Rover, name a giant squid Alfred." Remus replied, pushing his hair out of his eyes, "Mind if I sit down?"

Leah smiled a little. "Your buttocks and Hogwarts grass. I have no say in this matter."

Remus chuckled, "I actually had nowhere to go- my people are facing McGonagall's wrath in detention, and then I saw you here."

"I'm just… drifting around." Leah shrugged, "Everything alright?"

Remus looked surprised. He answered quickly- a tad cautiously, Leah thought. "Of course. Why ask?"

"You look tired." She said gently, "Most of the time."

"Oh, yes. I can't deal with too much stress. And the OWLs are coming up…"

"I respect your privacy." She replied, quoting him from earlier, "But that sounds like a well-rehearsed lie."

"Maybe it is, then." Remus shrugged, "How're _you_?"

"I'm fine."

Leah ran her fingers through her hair.  
Remus frowned, and as the sunlight fell on his face, he looked as good as Kyle, in a different way, "Are you sure?"

"Of course. Why ask?"

"You looked absolutely lost, sitting here. I suppose you thought no one was watching, so you could let your guard down." Remus said, "I hope it's not something Sirius did. Half the times, he makes a mess of things, without meaning to."

Leah shook her head.

Stupid Black.

Her eyes stung with tears.

_Not now, Leah. Idiot. Not _now.

She rubbed her wrist over her eyes, sniffing.

"Leah?" Remus's voice sounded far away.

"I'm fine." Her voice didn't betray her, "Remus. I'm fine."

His hand touched her shoulder hesitantly, gently. He gave it an awkward pat. "If I got Angie away, you could talk to Kyle about whatever it is."

"He wouldn't want that." Leah said, looking up, having banished all traces of tears, "He's having too much fun."

"He was actually asking about you. Every time we went in. Subtly, of course." Remus said, with a grin. He stood up and steered Leah up with him, "C'mon, let's get Angie away, alright?"

Kyle was worried about Leah.

It was unlike her to not show up. Very unlike her.

Angie saw, and offered to go find her.

"No, she'll come when she feels like." Kyle objected, just as Remus entered, with Leah beside him. They were both laughing, and Leah looked uncharacteristically comfortable.

"Angie, there you are." Remus said, "Lily wants-"

Angie sprung up, "It's the Paris magazine, I tell you. That sneaky Evans. She's trying to black-mail me, I tell you." She beamed at Kyle, "I'll go. Call me if you need me! Coming, Remus?"

Leah shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another, avoiding Kyle's gaze.

"Leah?"

With every fiber of his being, Kyle knew something had shaken Leah up. He could see the clenched fists, the tightened shoulders. He could _feel _something was wrong.

"Is Zinc OK?"

She nodded, still not looking at him. He couldn't see her face, behind her curtain of hair. Just her lips, stretched into a trembling line.

"Leah, sit here. Come on. I need some of those pills and I can't reach." He was coaxing her out of the shell she seemed to have retired into, and he felt so guilty for not having noticed earlier.

She took a few brisk steps forward, and picked the pills off the tray. She handed him a glass of water and then sat down on the side of his bed. Her hand sought his, and grasped the fingers almost timidly.

"Leah, what is it?"

"Should I go?" the words were so quiet, he had to strain to catch them.

"Go? Go where?"

"Am I bothering you, Kyle?" She tossed her hair back and looked at him, through hard eyes that didn't reveal anything.

He put the glass back and clasped her cold hand tightly.

"Shut up, sis. You never bother me. I've wanted you around for so long, and you never came." Her fingers shook in his hands, and he continued, more gently, "What is it?"

She shook her head, hunching her shoulders. A tight knot formed in her throat, and she knew, if she spoke, she'd flood the bed, the Hospital Wing and eventually the whole of Hogwarts.

Kyle straightened up in his bed, as well as he could and then reached out, hugging her.

"Oh, oh, _Kyle."_

And she was crying, her whole body shaking with sobs.

"Leah, Leah, what is it? What is it?"

She kept sobbing, heart-rending cries, dampening his robes.

It was this touching scene Sirius Black and James Potter walked in on, and then quietly, realizing they were intruding on something very, very private, James reached out and drew Sirius away with him.

An hour later, Leah emerged, feeling drained and tired, hiding under her Hogwarts robes a full bottle of Firewhisky, courtesy of her brother.

He'd managed to push it into her hands before he collapsed.

Madame Promfrey had come in, seen Kyle grimacing with the pain his leg was causing him, and Leah looking no better. She gave Leah chocolate and sent her on her way.

The chocolate was sweet in her mouth.

Kyle hadn't said anything, as she narrated her story into his completely wet shirt, and by the time she was done, his painkiller had started to wear off and he could barely sit up anymore.

So she didn't know what Kyle thought of her. Whether he thought she was stupid, or whether he was sympathetic.

She trod down the silent corridors. It was tea time, and everyone was in the Great Hall, inhaling croissants and coffee and biscuits.

There was still a butter-beer stain on the wall where the bottle had hit, having missed Regulus. Leah tossed her head, irritably, and walked past, into the corridor overlooking the Forbidden Forest.

She took the bottle of Firewhisky out and uncorked it, before putting it to her mouth and taking a long gulp.

So what if someone caught her?

Worst case scenario, she'd get detention.

Footsteps made her turn her head warily, though she made no attempt to hide the Firewhisky. She'd only got smashed once before, and… her diary entry said it felt pretty damn good.

She didn't want any company right now- no one's. And certainly not someone she'd never seen before.

The student wore a Gryffindor tie, loosely strung around his neck. He was tall and lithe, but beneath his robes, Leah predicted, was a strong body; muscled with some sort of sport… maybe Quidditch.

Dark curls flowed into a face that was… _so much like Bennett's._

His skin was tanned by some foreign sun. Golden skin.

Memories of horse-riding and long blades of glass flew through Leah's already muddled head. She hadn't thought of Bennett in so long, he'd become a part of a buried past. Almost forgotten, like her mother. And now, what with Sirius Black and this person…

"Everything alright?" the so-much-like-Bennett-someone asked, quirking a questioning eyebrow at her and tilting his head.

She nodded.

"You know, if someone sees that-"

"I don't really care." She muttered, turning her head away and peering into the soothing distance.

The boy shrugged, "OK then. Why don't I show you a place you can drink safely?"

Leah didn't want to look at him.

"Just take me to the room, please." She said quietly, "I need to be alone."

He took a step forward, holding out a hand, "I'm Jason. Jason Azine."

Leah looked at the hand. If Bennett had lived, would his hand have looked like that? Strong, manly?

"Leah."

"Are you new?" He asked, beginning to walk down the corridor, unabashed by her refusal of the handshake, "I haven't seen you around before."

She nodded, trying to pull her eyes away from his beautiful, warm face, "I… I haven't seen you around, either."

Merlin.

She felt like she was thirteen again.

"I just returned from a vacation." He said, rounding a corner and pulling a tapestry aside. It hid a door. Leah was reminded of the shrinking room. He pulled it open, and looked at Leah.

She was staring at it, eyes wide, her room an 'o' of surprise.

It was perfect.

It was small, and circular, and its space included a dusty desk, a large carpet and old, moth eaten pillows. Light streamed in from a small circular window in its low, wooding ceiling. It caught the dust, which danced like little nymphs at some ritualistic gathering.

He laughed, smiling at her, "Like it? Just don't get too drunk, OK? It never helps."

She nodded.

"I… I… thank you."

Damn tongue-tie.

Where did it come from?

Jason was saying something about getting his timetable from Professor McGonagall.

In a second, he'd gone, and Leah was standing in the comforting room, inhaling the musty smell of time and wondering if she'd see him again at dinner… And if he'd ever talk to her again. And if she _wanted _him to talk to her again.

She curled up amongst the moth eaten cushions and took another sip of the Firewhisky, appreciatively letting it warm her insides.

Bennett.

She'd never known how much he'd meant to her until she'd seen him lying amidst the destruction the Death Eaters had created. She hadn't known how he'd been the first person who made her feel alive, until she saw the Snitch fall from his grasp.

And she realized she'd never told him how much she loved him.

And he'd died not knowing it.

Her hand grew limp around the Firewhisky and it nearly slipped from her hand. She grasped it again.

Jason what? Azine. Jason Azine was not Bennett. Sirius Black was… pathetic.

And she was going to get smashed.

So there.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

The sun was setting in the distance, turning the sky crimson, with streaks of yellow and orange flying through it.

Leah rested on her elbows, appreciatively watching the distance.

Remus stood beside her, mirroring her posture. He looked more relaxed than he had in days. That could have been the effect of getting smashed with Leah, a few hours ago. Between them, they'd finished the bottle of Firewhisky, and much to her chagrin, Leah realized that the amount she'd consumed wasn't even enough to make a house elf tipsy.

Still, it had been worth it.

Remus Lupin was a lot more fun than he was given credit for. He'd read all the right books, and he could discuss in length his favorite ones. He was funny and nice, too, and more than once, Leah found herself laughing and feeling comfortable.

"Back at home, sometimes, I sit and watch the sun set alone. There's a little forest right behind our house." Remus said.

"I watch the sun set with Zinc," Leah began, "I mean, I used to. And the full moon. Do you ever watch the full moon?"

She glanced at him with a smile on her face.

Remus's smile seemed to falter for a second, and then he said, quietly, "The full moon scares me." It was as if he was revealing a part of him to her, leaving it there for her to inspect and maybe judge.

"Kyle singing scares me." Leah replied, trying to sound somber.

It worked, because Remus smiled again and laughed.

Suddenly, she felt the need to talk about all the things she had done _before _she'd come to Hogwarts. She had already told him about midnight feasts with Ian and Kyle, her collection of books, the time Kyle had fallen off the highest jumping board and whacked his head against the concrete… But there was more.

As the memories ran through her mind like a flying patchwork quilt, Leah realized no matter what her life had been, it had not been an uneventful one.

Almost each week had had one highlight- it was a pity a human being could only remember so much.

"Ian took Kyle and me to his friend's farm." She said, waving her wand gently, so an image slowly seeped into being before them.

Remus surveyed the scene with interest.

The car was a blue one- a little dusty, because of the journey. The three of them all wore orange t-shirts, with shorts and boots. They weren't very clean- dirt-streaked faces, dusty shoes and legs-because the car had broken down and they had to walk to the nearest village to find someone to repair it.

"Jack was nice- Ian's friend. We rode horses, swam in the lake behind the farm- loads of fun. And right before we left, Ian said he had something to give me. Jack and he took us to the house- and there was a large dog there. Alaskan malamute. And she had about five puppies swarming around her. To anyone else, they'd probably looked alike. They were all cute." Leah paused, and her eyes softened and her face seemed to light up, "But one of them- he just came up to me, and tried to climb up my leg. When I felt his little wet nose touch my skin, I… I fell instantly and completely in love with him."

"Don't you wish he was Animagi?" Remus questioned, laughing.

"Zinc?" Leah chuckled, "Never thought about it, actually. If he _were _one, as a human he'd be tall and strong and gentle…" An image of Bennett flashed through her mind, but it wasn't _Bennett. _It was also Jason Azine, blended in with Bennett's features- _no, no, no, stupid Leah-_ "And Kyle would probably be a rat." She added, rolling her eyes.

"I think you'd be a dog. Maybe a bird." Remus said thoughtfully.

"Not a pigeon, I hope?"

"No, something like an eagle. A hawk."

Leah snorted and shook her hair back, "I'm that bad? No, don't answer that."

"Peter… rat." Remus said.

"Or a squirrel." Leah agreed, "And James… a horse? A bear."

"Something big and four-legged." Remus agreed, with a smile playing on his lips, as if he knew an inside secret, "And Sirius?"

Leah suddenly saw in her mind what she had seen when she made her way down to meet Remus after a shower- Sirius Black in the corridor, entangled with someone blonde.

What animal Black would turn into? Oh, that was easy.

_A frog._

"A dog." She said finally, "Black and big."

Remus looked surprised for a split second, before nodding in agreement.

"And you…" Leah tilted her head up to examine him.

He groaned, "Have people ever told you about your very… penetrating gaze?"

She smiled and said, "A wolf."

"What?"

"You'd be a wolf."

Leah didn't know why she said that. After all, Remus Lupin was friendly and nice. He lived in his little bubble, dragged forcibly through the craziness of life by his more dominating friends- James and Black.

There was nothing wolf-like about him.

Right now, he looked like she had punched him. His eyes widened in and his mouth made an o.

"Is something wrong?" Leah asked hesitantly, certain she'd messed up. And she'd been doing so well all this time… they'd had fun… and now-

"No, no, nothing." Remus said hurriedly, regaining his composure. He asked, suddenly, "And would that… frighten you?"

"You turned into a wolf?" Leah inquired, "No, I don't think it would."

She thought of how often he had looked battered and tired and sick of life. Propelled by some invisible strength, she continued, "You could turn into anything. I wouldn't be afraid of you, Remus. You could turn into a werewolf and-"

_Click._

With startling clarity, the clues started falling into place.

Remus visiting his grandmother- so _conveniently- _during the full moon… _The full moon scares me._. Remus's face when she said his Animagi form should be a wolf… _The outside is a dangerous place when the moon rises_. The Marauders missing that night when Kyle awoke? Leah ran a mental check… the full moon.

She looked at him, and in the moment her eyes met his, he knew that she knew.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?"

She could almost see the air whoosh out of his lungs; she watched him stagger and step back, away from her.  
She tried to reach out and stop him. "Remus, I-"

His shabby robes whipped through the air and he was running away.

I've been running a lot more than usual, Leah thought grimly as she raced after Remus.

A knot of fifth year girls stopped giggling as Remus passed them, almost shrinking back in fear. Leah could only imagine what they'd seen in his face.

Portraits and tapestries flew past them, and soon they were approaching the part of school Leah hadn't visited before.

"You can't go any further, students! STOP!"

Leah looked at the shrieking portrait- something in that voice sounded familiar- and caught her foot in her robe. She tripped and landed in an undignified heap on the floor, hitting her head against the knee of a suit of armor.

Sharp warmth burst through her head and ankle.

Groaning, she clutched her poor head and attempted to get to her feet, growling when she stumbled back again. She smacked her fist against the floor in frustration, seeing that Remus had disappeared.

Frowning, she looked around. She seemed to have come to the darker part of Hogwarts. The portraits were gloomy or simply frightening, glaring down at her through gouged eyes or from under pointed black hoods. The corridor was dimly lit- the lamps a flickering, ugly green.

She wondered vaguely if anyone would find her here.

After her prolonged period of feeling human and happy around Remus, she felt drained. Exhausted. Something about this corridor made her feel horribly depressed. Her mind felt clouded, and her vision blurred with tears. Her head throbbed- clench, unclench… ouch, ouch, ouch.

Leah didn't know how long she sat there.

She was thinking about how she had messed up again. The first time she'd actually _spoken _to someone without Kyle's support… and this was how it had ended.

_Don't try to make friends. You'll end up chasing them away, Leah, _a quiet, taunting voice hissed somewhere in her muddled head.

In her mind's eye, she saw Remus running away. She almost caught him- but… but right before she could grasp his robes, a body fell into her vision, landed squarely in front of her. Bennett. He started to get up and for a second there he was Sirius Black- and then he was Jason Azine and now-

"Your foot. Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Leah looked up at the owner of the voice, following it like it was a lifeline.

She held out her arms like a little girl- _what was this corridor doing to her?_- and a sob escaped her throat. "B-Bennett."

"Smithson, let me handle her. You'd better get back to the Great Hall. Hurry, this corridor's forbidden. It's not safe."

Leah held up her arms, tried to reach forward, hearing Smithson or whoever walk away.

Warm eyes, like molten gold, held hers and she frowned. Bennett did not have eyes like that. Bennett had brown eyes. Bennett-

Bennett nodded reassuringly and put an arm around her shoulder, lifting her onto her feet. She winced and tried to remember the spell that would make her foot better. It just wouldn't _come._ Her mind was blank.

She was only aware of how unlike herself she was acting. How helpless and sappy. And she couldn't do anything about it. Any attempt to talk came out as a jumble of tears.

Bloody dark magic lingering in the corridor…

She decided to shut up and let the ghost of Bennett guide her back to… to… where were they going?

"Hospital wing." The ghost said, as if reading her confused mind, "The magic was pretty strong. We may never have found you if it wasn't for the portrait of Sir Bentley."

She nodded, tried to get a grip on herself.

Ugh. Damsel in distress. Why, why, why?


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Madame Promfrey wasn't pleased to see her.

She muttered something about not following rules, disturbing Kyle, complaining to the headmaster, and finally handed Leah a steaming mug of light blue potion.

"Drink."

Leah drank.

And then she slept.

X-X-X-X

While Leah was sleeping, life continued.

Remus didn't show his face until late after dinner, and then he didn't talk to any of the Marauders, despite their pleas and demands to know _where the fuck _he'd been. Finally, he stormed out of the dormitory, seeking refuge by the common room window, overlooking the dark shadowy fields.

He'd run because he couldn't bear to face her. His rage and shame and fear had been so explosive, so animalistic that he'd had no choice but to take flight.

Leah's words kept echoing through his mind.

_You're a werewolf, aren't you?_

He viciously dug his fingers deep into his palms, drawing little streams of blood that trickled down his wrists.

_Yes. That's what I am. That's what I've been since I was a fucking six year old._

Would Leah tell Kyle? They were twins. The girls? How was he ever going to face them again, knowing they knew his secret? Knew he was… a _thing._

"Lupin?"

He didn't look up. Maybe if he stayed silent the guy would go away.

Jason Azine, Chaser on the Gryffindor team, crouched down beside him and gave him a brotherly tap on the shoulder.

"Everything OK, mate?"

_No, nothing's 'OK'. I'm a fucking _creature _and now everyone's going to know._

"Everything's fine." He replied.

"It doesn't look fine from where I stand." Jason said calmly, "But that's not my business. Sir Bentley told us you'd run through that corridor too. I just wanted to make sure the magic hadn't addled your brains too."

Oh, right.

He'd gone through one of the forbidden corridor.

That magic didn't work on werewolves, but Jason didn't need to know that.

They both looked up at the sound of giggling, and saw Sirius being pulled into a couch nearby by an eager fifth year.

Poor Leah, Remus thought cheerlessly. The Marauders were one horrible bunch- Sirius the idiot who'd done god-knows-what to her, Remus the werewolf, James the love-struck dope and Peter the vague. And Leah and Kyle had fallen right into the midst of them.

Jason rolled his eyes at the couple and got to his feet, dropping something on Remus's lap before he left.

It was a bar of Honeydukes's Best Nutty Milk Chocolate.

X-X-X-X

When Leah awoke, it was thirty minutes to Potions.

"Bloody stupid corridor." She growled, sitting up in the hospital wing bed, in a flurry of Hogwarts robes and blankets.

"It sounded evil." A voice agreed.

Leah blinked stupidly up at her twin, who was standing above her. He looked better than he had in days- the color had returned to his face, and his eyes didn't look very tired anymore. But how was he standing…?

He held up his arm, displaying a crutch.

"These go in two days."

She frowned uncomprehendingly.

Kyle sighed and yanked her blankets off her, before telling her she'd better make herself decent. With a delicate shudder, he continued, "You look so horrible I'd be ashamed to be seen with you in public."

Leah glowered at him and then- _Zinc._

"I fed him." Kyle replied, amused as he watched her failed attempts to prance out of bed. "Now get up. I _really _don't want to be seen in the corridor with something that looks like-"

"I dare you to finish that sentence, Kyle." Leah said, poking her wand into his stomach, and scowling at him.

Kyle backed away, grinning. He held her eyes, looking- after so many months- like her little twin brother.

"It's good to be back together, Leah." He said cheerfully, and then ruined the moment by throwing some cloth into her face. She caught the bundle before it hit the ground, "Towel, clothes. Go clean yourself up, ratty."

Fifteen minutes later, Leah was cramming toast into her mouth and flying down the corridors to Potions. She halted suddenly, right outside the door, as if she'd run into an invisible barrier. How would she face Remus today? Would he talk to her? And- she didn't want to sit with Sirius Black. The anger and humility would be too much for her to bear. She'd either cry, shiver and feel like she'd met a Dementor, or, to save the lives of thousands of other girls, she'd kill him.

…Awkward.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and greeted her twin with a crude hand gesture. Kyle didn't say anything, but limped forward, propelling her into the half-empty classroom.

"Professor Slughorn," he called.

The man looked up from the potion he was examining and beamed, like he always did when he beheld 'Cassandra's children'. "How good it is to have you back, Mr. Ebony! That was a lovely catch you made the other day. Minerva's very pleased- she may just give you a few extra marks in Transfiguration."

"I can only hope." Kyle replied, cheerfully, "Professor, I needed to talk to you about something…"

"Of course, of course."

"Well, since I'm using these crutches, my hand movement is... _limited._" Leah frowned at her twin, wondering where he was going with the sob-story, "I'd really like to sit with Leah."

_Oh._

Leah's eyes prickled with sudden tears, and the urge to hug Kyle and wash his socks and dirty underwear every day until they grew old became overwhelming.

Slughorn considered it, "I suppose I could do that for Cassandra's son." He said finally, dropping a few slices of toad-skin into his steaming cauldron, "I'll put Black with Ms. Miller. Her previous partner has decided not to take Potions, since he burned his poor face off during remedial classes."

"Thank you, Professor." Kyle said, and turned his gaze on Leah, suddenly serious, as they walked back to his new seat, "Does that help?"

"Yes." Leah said, "Oh, Kyle. It's so good to have you here."

Kyle patted her shoulder and sunk into the bench, "I know, right?" he pushed his empty cauldron towards her, "Of course, your love for me and my kind brotherly heart will mean you'll make my potions."

Leah hit him hard on his head with her black notebook. "Idiot!"

"You love me, ratty."

She raised the book again-

"Kyle! You're back, mate!"

A black inky head appeared over Leah's, and James Potter laughed and snatched the book out of her hand, "I reckon I just saved your head from Leah's evil book."  
"Yeah, because a book's just the perfect weapon for the mass murder of his tiny handful of brain cells." Leah replied, trying to get it back from him.

James grinned and tossed it up, out of her reach.

Leah let him and Kyle fool around for a while. After all, it wasn't very often they got to feel masculine and macho, was it? And then, with a simple summoning charm known as _Accio_, she retrieved her notebook from James's hand, watching his smile slide off like stink-sap.

"Why, Leah? Why in front of _Lily_?" he whispered to her, because at that precise moment Lily strode in, with her flaming red hair piled into a large bun on her head. She laughed at her mournful admirer, congratulated Leah on how she'd pricked said admirer's inflated head, and asked Kyle how he felt, before taking a fat textbook to Slughorn. In five seconds, the two of them were immersed in deep conversation about 'some bloody poisonous soup', as James eloquently and irritably put.

"Where's Remus?" Leah asked finally, as more and more people filed into the classroom.

James's smile faded a little, "He'll be here in a bit."

"Is he… alright?"

He looked at her sharply, "Do you know what's got him all ruffled?"

She shook her head. "I just wondered. He's usually in early."

Her eyes swept to the door for the sixth time- and in strode Sirius Black. Maybe it wouldn't have bothered her quite so much, if he hadn't just… just flung the second girl at her face (though he had no idea she'd seen them in that corridor). It bothered her because he'd done that after he'd led her to believe they were, if anything- _friends._

He walked over to them- to where she was- the nerve of him- and grinned at Kyle.

"Back, mate? That's brilliant!"

Leah's eyes flickered to her brother's face. Kyle nodded, smiling back at him. Leah knew no one but she could see the steely glint in his dark eyes or the forced quality to the smile.

The last person to enter class was Remus Lupin.

He refused to meet Leah's eyes as he took his place. She sat there, chewing her lip and feeling miserable as Slughorn droned on about the misuse of equipment.

"How the hell does someone misuse a cauldron and a spoon anyway?" Kyle whispered to her.

"You're the perverted twin." She replied, in an equally hushed voice.

Kyle held up his spoon, eyed it critically and then put it back down, shaking his head. "Wouldn't want that anywhere in me."

Leah muffled a giggle and poked him in the rib.

"Watch it." He said, "So, what's wrong with Remus?"

"I don't know." Leah whispered back, lying. Lying to _Kyle._

Kyle nodded, tearing his gaze away from the subject's head. "It feels so good to be back out, Lee. I _hate _being cooped up."

Leah rolled her eyes. She knew only too well. Kyle and Zinc were on the same wavelength when it came to being 'cooped up' inside. Zinc destroyed any furniture within his reach while howling mournfully, and Kyle howled mournfully in his bed and glowered darkly at the furniture, usually wishing looks could kill.

"Mhhm."

He added, in one of his bursts of seriousness, "And I worried about you. A lot."

"Baby brother." Leah smiled.

"Ratty." He whispered back.

Their conversation turned to Quidditch, Leah writing down tips for Kyle to make his dive smoother. He read them seriously, because even if Leah wasn't brilliant at Quidditch, the advice she gave _him _always worked.

He briefed her on what Zinc ate for breakfast and suggested they take him out for the next Hogsmeade trip, which was coming up in two days.

Then they were discussing where they'd like to go best and-

"Ahem."

Professor Slughorn was blinking down at them, disapprovingly.

Leah went red when she saw the whole class was staring at them.

Too loud, eh?

"Sorry, Professor." Kyle said automatically, and they bent their heads back down, pretending to take notes. Slughorn continued his boring lecture. Honestly, would he _never _stop?

"How did mum _deal _with him?" Leah whispered to Kyle, over a yawn.

Kyle shrugged, "Can't imagine. Now shut up. He'll never again let 'Cassandra's children' sit together after this."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

**Well, I hope you liked the chapter! I'd appreciate reviews- those actually help me write. Thanks for reading. ;) **


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